BLOGGING A DEAD HORSE …

I have eaten horse meat and found it excellent. I have eaten it in Switzerland where the origin of the meat was not admitted; it was simply ‘steak’. In France I have joined the queue at the Chevaline stall (on the canopy there is a picture of a horse so there should be no doubt), I ordered a couple of steaks and half a kilo of mince and all was subsequently eaten. It struck me that it was not a cheap meat and I doubt if French people eat it because it costs less than, say, beef.  

However, I am not sure that I will eat horse meat again. Not if I can help it. 

In the hoo-ha that presently surrounds the issue of horse meat finding its way anonymously in our food chain it could be that if diluting the beef content of, say, a spaghetti sauce with small bits of horse is commercially attractive then it must be very *cheap horse meat to make the whole business worthwhile. This is what should worry worries us then, not so much the eating of horse per se but the clandestine sneaking of it into UK food products of meat that has not been subject to the required background tests and so may be dangerous. Current reports talk of dangerous chemicals being found in some horse meat which increases the fear of what we may have eaten and makes it even more imperative that checks take place.  This is what is creating such an uproar.  

*The Times today quotes horse meat at £700 a tonne and beef at £3000 a tonne. This suggests to me that the horse meat imported into UK is not the quality stuff the French eat and shows why using it instead of beef makes a better profit. 

There is, of course, a natural aversion to eating an animal that in our society is not bred for eating but rather for riding, for racing and for looking just wonderful in any natural setting. Horses are just plain beautiful. The sight of a mare with her foal is enough to make one weep with joy. Lovely creatures they are! We anthropomorphise them, we invest them with character, spirit, loyalty, strength, perseverance, elegance. We write books and plays and make movies about them. Black Beauty, National Velvet and War Horse come to mind. Kill them? Eat them? Surely not. As I write I wonder about this man here who has knowingly queued up to buy horse meat and has gone away to eat it. This man is beginning to wonder about this. 

If we allow ourselves to consider how these noble beasts meet their end then the abhorrence we feel becomes even more acute. We read that the slaughterer’s bolt often does not penetrate the beast’s skull and kill it so that the gruesome business of turning living animal into piles of flesh takes place on an animal may be alive for part of its journey. How can human beings be so … no, I really cannot say ‘beastly’. All I can say is that it is heartlessly cruel. Of course, we meat-eaters do not like to think about the way any of the creatures we eat meet their ends. If we did there would be many more vegetarians.  

It is the idea of eating meat from the horse that bothers most of us and that’s enough for special attention to be given to its secret inclusion in our diets. This is why the real issue of ‘sneaking it in’ is so offensive. The risk of our eating meat that is unsafe is important but is a secondary factor. The additional fact that such meat might be bringing down the cost to us, or the likelihood of prices rising if it is withdrawn does not, I suspect, cut much ice with people who don’t buy prepared meat products such as burgers and pasta sauces (and they are the people who write the articles in the papers). Our collective position on the eating of horse may not be rationally based; it may be just prejudice, but these feelings we have must be respected. This is part of our culture. 

At this point I have to say that the inclusion of covert pork into prepared dishes labelled as containing only beef or lamb, which we have seen recently in the media, have implications for our Jewish and Muslim friends that is even more horrifying. 

No, I shall not ever again consciously eat horse meat and I hope that ways are found to ensure that the contents of our food products are clearly and honestly stated in the future.  Horse meat could be the start of a slippery slope that goes on to include meal worms in human diet (this is happening now in an experimental way). Whatever next, Soylent Green? 

Footnote:

A letter in The Times  (12^th Feb ’13) made me laugh. I remember what were called ‘British Restaurants’ – quite popular during the War when food was rationed – and I remember the ‘Vienna Steaks’ served with a rich dark sauce with onions that I thought were terrific. Read on!

 

 

Needless to say, I didn't know I was eating horse and neither did my parents.