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In the late palaeolithic ( Magdalenien ) wild horses formed an important source of food.
Horse meat is often of very good quality. It is tender, low in fat and high in protein, something that has led to its being popular among body builders. Horse meat has a slightly sweet taste that some find distasteful, but that can be disguised with seasoning and spices.
Horse was commonly eaten in many countries in pre-Christian Europe, but not in Islamic or Jewish countries, since under Mosaic Law, horse meat is unclean because the horse is not cloven-hoofed or cud-chewing. In pre-Christian times, horse meat was eaten in northern Europe as part of Teutonic religious ceremonies, particularly those associated with the worship of Odin.
In 732 A.D., Pope Gregory III began an effort to stop the pagan practice of horse eating, calling it "abominable", and the people of Iceland allegedly expressed reluctance to embrace Christianity for some time largely over the issue of giving up horse meat. In some countries the effects of this prohibition by the Catholic Church have lingered, and horse meat prejudices have progressed from taboos to avoidance to abhorrence.
The French appetite for horse meat supposedly dates from the Battle of Eylau in 1807, when the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's Grand Army, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey , advised the starving troops to eat the flesh of dead battlefield horses. The cavalry used breastplates as cooking pans and gunpowder as seasoning, and thus founded a tradition. Today many European countries, including ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer, RomaniaRomania (formerly spelled Rumania or Roumania is a country in southeastern Europe. Romania is bordered by Ukraine and Moldova in the northeast, Hungary and Serbia in the west and Bulgaria to the south. Romania also has a small sea coast on the Black Sea. and BelgiumFor alternate meanings, see Belgium (disambiguation). Belgian redirects here. For the horse breed commonly used as a draft horse, see Belgian. The Kingdom of Belgium ( Dutch: Belgi French: Belgique German: Belgien is a country in Western Europe, bordered, produce and consume horse meat.
During World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, due to the low supply and high price of beef, the state of New JerseyNew Jersey is a state of the United States of America and has the U. postal abbreviation of NJ . The state is named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel. The USS New Jersey one of the most decorated vessels in the United States Navy, was name legalized the sale of horse meat. At war's end, the state again prohibited such sale—some say in response to pressure from the beefBeef is meat obtained from a bovine. The better cuts are usually obtained from steers, as heifers tend to be kept for breeding. Older animals are used for beef when they are past their reproductive prime. The meat from older cows and bulls is generally to lobby.
According to the anthropologist Marvin HarrisMarvin Harris ( August 18 1927 October 25 2001) was an American anthropologist and highly influential in the development of cultural materialism. In his work, he drew largely on the theories of Thomas Malthus and Karl Marx, combining Malthus' focus on the, humans class horsemeat as taboo because the horse converts grass into meat less efficiently than other beasts, since horses do not function as ruminants. When breeding cattle for meat, a cow or a sheep will produce more meat if fed with the same amount of grass.
Although people in the United States of America rarely eat horse meat, many horses from the US are sold for slaughter and consumption in Europe, Mexico or Japan. A Food Standards Agency (FSA) 2003 investigation has revealed that salami and chorizo on sale in the UK sometimes contains horse and donkey meat, without being mentioned on the food label—something that is required.
Much of the horse produced in the US is sold to zoos for carnivore feeding.
Brigitte Bardot has spent her latter years crusading against the eating of horse meat. Mare milk is used by peoples with large horse herds, like Mongols.They may let it ferment to produce kumys. However, mares produce a much lower yield of milk than do cows.