OK, so let’s start with the basics…
In Britain, and a lot of the Western world, horses are not bred for, nor considered as an option for, their meal-time meat. (Though I’m aware that areas of France (especially if you include donkeys), Portugal and Spain include horse meat on their menus, my knowledge of Europe beyond the West is pretty scarce, especially when it comes to culinary conventions, sorry.)
Here in Kazakhstan, especially by Kazakhs, horse is considered to be a normal meat/edible flesh, in the same way as chicken, beef or fish is. Although horses bred for eating are treated very differently, and indeed look different, to those destined for racing or transport on the steppe, a horse is just another animal that serves a purpose.
Recently, investigations have revealed that some supposedly beef-based ready made meals in Europe (stories from Britain have cropped up most in my online reading) have contained very high proportions of horse meat. Now, to the people that keep horses as cherished companions/pets, especially around younger children, I can completely understand the revulsion many will have felt… However, to most of the other people now loudly exclaiming their revulsion online, and threatening boycotts, I have to ask, how many had already consumed these not-pure lasagne/bolognese/mince meat, and not noticed a thing at the time?
For anyone honestly able to recall a yuck-what-the-hell-is-this? incident PRIOR to hearing about the scandal, my sympathies are with you. To all the others, I would simply ask, do you not now consider horse meat to be a viable alternative? If not in your homeland, where social convention leads you to consider horses as some how more sacred than other mammals, then at least if/when you travel abroad?
I have eaten horse meat more times than I can specifically count, and the only problem I have with it is the method… beshbarmaq is flat sheets of pasta (not too dissimilar to lasagne, in that respect, spookily enough) with onions and boiled horse meat. Other than crisps (I failed to find images of these online, sorry), this meal is the only time I’ve knowingly encountered and consumed horse meat. Besides a big joint of ham, all meats should be baked/grilled/fried as far as my fussy taste buds are concerned!
Anyway, if you couldn’t tell the difference when you consumed a “tainted” UK ready meal, perhaps it is time to consider whether horse meat always belongs on your no-no list?
February 14th, 2013 6:02 pm
Surely the point is that you should expect to buy what you are being sold on the label? Horse is considerably cheaper than beef – so this may indicate that somewhere along the chain there is a massive fiddle going on. I have no problems eating horse meat, it is just catching the buggers that is the problem.
February 18th, 2013 5:17 pm
I have no issue with people complaining about being ripped off, this post was mainly written with the people going “yuck”, especially those that had actually eaten meals with horse meat in it, and not noticed at the time.
February 14th, 2013 9:21 pm
agree, in many cases it was an ignorance is bliss type thing when eating eat, then a sick kinda feeling (at the least 🙂 ) when finding out its horse meat. Looking inward on the UK from Kazakhstan on BBC news I feel like tearing hair out (whats left !!) when hearing how many thousands of sausages, burgers, Lasagnes etc are going to be thrown away, when theres more than a handful of ‘rather hungry’ people out there … it seems crazy .. saw on the news today that some of the horsemeat may contain a chemical harmful to humans (medicine administered to the horse) but my gut feeling it its one of those “yes it MAY be harmful to one in 10 million odd people”, but European legislation states that would be one too many, so throw it all away .. although kind quite understand that, as most of the horse meat originated from Romania, that was being sold for human consumption anyway (and apparently clearly labelled as horsemeat) … yep, we’ll have those few thousand burgers here thanks ..
February 18th, 2013 5:20 pm
I remember working at Asda all those years ago, and they use to pour bleach type chemicals on the expired fruit and veg etc., to prevent homeless guys from climbing in the skips and eating it. They claimed it was to prevent being sued if someone ate bad food from the bin, but still… I’m pretty damn sure a waiver form could have been signed before passing food no one else was going to be able to buy on to hungry people.
February 14th, 2013 10:10 pm
Paul Kemp liked this on Facebook.
February 17th, 2013 1:20 am
[…] meat scandal‘ continues to rage in Europe, Chris Merriman (an expat living in Kazakhstan)Â writes in his blog that horse meat is after all a perfectly edible […]
February 17th, 2013 1:27 am
Horse is ‘Normal Meat’ in Kazakhstan
While the ‘horse meat scandal‘ continues to rage in Europe, Chris Merriman (an expat living in Kazakhstan) writes in his blog that horse meat is after all a perfectly edible food:
“Here in Kazakhstan, especially by Kazakhs, horse is considered to be a normal meat/edible flesh, in the same way as chicken, beef or fish is. Although horses bred for eating are treated very differently, and indeed look different, to those destined for racing or transport on the steppe, a horse is just another animal that serves a purpose.”
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/02/16/horse-is-normal-meat-in-kazakhstan/
February 17th, 2013 8:10 pm
Dan, couldn’t agree with you more. However we are paying for more costly beef – some of which has been proven to contain other bits – pork, lamb, chicken etc. Some people are making a financial killing from this. The industry needs some serious reexamination (like a lot of other industries).
February 26th, 2013 12:29 am
We hear you Mr Niebel:
“Germany’s development minister has suggested that horsemeat mislabelled as beef should be distributed to the poor.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21559451
February 26th, 2013 7:26 pm
I’m glad his suggestion wasn’t shot down entirely by everyone.
February 27th, 2013 2:16 pm
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March 20th, 2013 1:51 pm
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