Horses have been worshipped by Man, but also hunted as a food source since the Paleolithic Era.
Upon my arrival in Paris I was surprised by the number of butchers offering ‘cheval’, which has been a part of the French culinary history since the Revolution. The Haute Bourgeoisie regarded horse as a meal for the lower classes, although all classes ate the beloved beast during the 1870 Siege of Paris.
Horse meat is deemed tref by Jewish dietary laws due to their cloven hooves and few people in the USA feed on horses. We loved BLACK BEAUTY and FLICKA. Boys my age knew the names of our cowboy’ heroes’ horses. The Lone Ranger rode Silver and Roy Rodgers had his faithful stead Trigger stuffed to be admire at his museum in Victorsville, California. Europeans are fond of the horse, but none more than the Irish and British who were shocked to find out that various supermarket-sold lasagnas, burgers, and pastas contained horse meat and even worse the meat is tainted by assorted antibioticS harmful to humans.
All for the sake of profit.
I’ve probably eaten horse somewhere along the line.
Maybe in France, but I can’t recall ever ordering it, because horses are another of man’s best friends.
And at least I’m not eating my best friend, for I don’t think any of them would taste as good as horse.