I've come to understand that eating horse meat is a taboo in many places, so what is your country's stance on it? Are there other types of meat that are eaten in your country, that are generally rare in other countries?
In Finland, it's quite rare except in mettwurst, which is a popular topping for bread. Additionally, most types of grocery store mettwurst don't even include it. Anyways, interestingly while rather rare, it's seen as perfectly normal, well among those who eat meat and aren't especially fond of horses.
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Nope, horse meat is not normal in Sweden although it exists.
Not very common but not taboo or anything
Having eaten it personally i can attest it’s delicious
Serbia/Bosnia
It’s not a typical food, but it’s not taboo either. Horse meat is part of some sausages and basturma.
Nope, there was big scandal years ago because Tesco was selling it without stating it was horse meat lol
It’s not taboo, but it is rare/non-standard. I’ve only seen it in two forms: sausage and smoked slices.
Nope, here in the UK there was an entire scandal about it. While I would happily eat it, most people here would not.
It is common in a particular area in France, but not country wide
Actually when I was a kid in Finland in the late 70s/early 80s my father would buy horse meat that was cured and was something akin to bresaola.
Yes, normal in Switzerland, can be found in most supermarkets.
Much less popular than other red meat though.
A Pole here. Horse meat used to be more common in my countru, but today it’s a controversial topic, and several restaurants (that tried) have been criticized by the public for serving horse meat. I myself ate dried horse meat in Lviv, Ukraine, and honestly, I don’t have any negative thoughts about myself because of it.
Horsesteak and smoked horsemeat are very popular in some regions of Belgium
It is surely consumed here, although it’s found more in certain specific regions.
But I’d say that it is quite common.
Yes it’s common here in Iceland and the foal meat is awesome. I don’t eat meat from grown horses.
Not at all. I don’t know if it is considered a taboo per se, but it’s pretty much impossible to find or eat here.
Reminds me of a scandal 12 or so years ago when it was discovered that IKEA meatballs had some type of horse meat contamination or wtv, and people went crazy about it over here. So maybe it is a taboo.
Not anymore. When I was a kid 30 years ago, one of my favourite meals was horse sausage with french fries, which used to be quite common in my town in Northern France. Now it’s rare to find horse meat.
Nowadays I think it’s only common in Alsace, and the youth consider it taboo.
In France it is not super common and some people will refuse to eat it based on “proximity” with the animal (like they would not eat rabbit). It probably depends on your region too, but close to Italy in particular it’s not uncommun
In Switzerland it’s quite common. I used to live right beside a horse butcher a couple of years ago.
Very common in Sardinia and quite a few other Italian regions. It’s also the only red meat I eat, so I’m glad it’s a possibility :D.
There used to be Pferdefleischhauer (butchers specialized in horse cuts) in Austria, which are rare now. There is only one common kind of food where horse meat is still popular here, which is Pferdeleberkäse. Leberkäse is like a meat loaf made of hot dog meat, which is cut into thick slices and served in a bread roll (Semmel). Usually made from a mixture of pork and beef, but Pferdeleberkäse contains a certain percentage of horse meat or may be made entirely from it.
We found it bizarre in the UK in 2013 when it came out that horse meat had been snuck into a lot of beef products by various supermarkets and other well known brands.
Then I know myself personally and others found that once beef was reintroduced, a lot of regular products we’d been buying didn’t seem as tasty and had us questioning whether we were enjoying horse meat 😂 I can’t speak for the rest of the UK on that one though
depends, there are butchers that specialise in horse meat, but you won’t find it on your typical restaurant menu
generally the closer you are to the older / more traditional generation, the most likely you’re not opposed to eating it
It’s very lean and rich in iron; it’s often prescribed during pregnancy. Horse and donkey meat are consumed in parts of Italy, France, Spain, Asia, and parts of South America.
Never seen it in Portugal.
You can find it in some butchers in Catalonia. It’s also pretty common in Andorra, you can easily buy it in big supermarkets (like River) from my experience.
No, in Germany it used to be, but now it’s diificult to get because of all the pony-mad girs.
Ate it on holiday in Italy, horrified a few people at home when I told them I’d done this
Definitely a taboo, it’s almost impossible to obtain in this country and evokes strong feeling
Local supermarket sells horse steak. It’s delicious!
Not really, though a really popular sausage, meetwursti contains horse meat by definition.
In my area of Italy (Emilia Romagna) it’s common enough that it gets sold in specialised butcher shops that sell only horse meat and they are profitable, my city is not big and has ten of them. When someone has iron deficiency, if they’re not vegetarian/vegan the first advice they’ll get is to try and eat horse meat regularly since it’s rich in iron, lean, and easily available. During the mad cow epidemic many folks just switched from beef to horse meat for a couple of years (then went back to beef once it was safe to do so because horse meat is more expensive, and not everybody prefers its sweeter taste). To me the real shock was learning that there are places where it’s not considered food.
In Italy it is quite common and generally accepted. We have specialized butcheries and in almost all supermarkets you can find horse meat easily
It used to very normal to eat horse meat in Denmark untill the 1960’s when the use of horses in agriculture diminshed with the introduction of the tractor. Then horses became a hobby and eating them stopped. You can still buy horse meat, I have tasted it a few times, but it’s not a regular dish. I wish it would be more common because I liked it fine.
It used to be more common than it is today but it’s not taboo, there are butchers that only sell horse meat but fewer than decades ago, and you can find horse meat in some restaurants, there’s also cured horse meat (cecina de caballo). I think the whole thing varies a lot by region, what I wrote is true for Cantabria, Castilla y León and Asturias, elsewhere not sure.
Back when I was in university we used to buy horse meat instead of beef because it was cheaper and delicious, proper steaks on a student budget haha
I’ve had it a few times in Antwerp. It’s “ok”.
In the UK I don’t think I’ve ever seen it (other than the scandal but I wasn’t living here then).
You can find it as a sausage, but I would say it’s non-standard
There were some scandals here throughout the years. In Romania eating horsies is a big neigh.
Wouldn’t call it normal, but wouldn’t call it a taboo either. Can’t find it in a regular supermarket though.
It’s almost, but not quite, as taboo as eating dogs. Horses live and work closely with humans, often for decades. We have a relationship with them. They’re pets, companions, and colleagues (in the police, the military, transport, agriculture). It seems dishonourable to eat them, they’re almost honorary people!
You will get Horse Sausages in the south-eastern parts of Germany.
A horse meat sausage used to be popular as a cheaper alternative but while still made today, is not as common as it used to be.
https://janprantl.cz/img/produkty/056205-Konsky-toceny.jpg
Horse steak on a hot stone is glorious!
But yeah, very rare to find outside of pet food.
Switzerland seems to be more open about horse in restaurants.
It’s just rare.
Traditionally it was used in sausages and other processed meat food. But there are cheaper alternatives today, so it’s getting quite rare. Except in Leberkassemmel, which is a traditional street food.
Estonia: yuck!
Somewhat bizarrely, and although to much lesser extent, this even goes for mutton and wild game (_like venison, wild boar, rabbit_), but definitely much much more against the horsemeat — it’s pork and beef which dominate the market as the casual norm.
— I don’t know why exactly it’s like this, maybe too accustomed to pork and beef and everything else feels immediately off.
I’m unsure about the exact regulations, but some years ago there were some scandals about horsemeat been mixed into processed foods (_some imported sausages, I think_). It took many by surprise that horsemeat wasn’t flat out illegal — not even just not notifying about it properly, and there’re pleanty whom still think it should be banned entirely (_foremost just for them personally not stumbling upon any of it just by some accident_).
I think this should give sufficient idea about generalized attitudes — it doesn’t mean there aren’t anyone at all whom wouldn’t find delicious, just general attitude towards it is rather highly disfavoring.
Not normal at all. When I was in the army, we joked about being fed horse meat. It’s a long-standing joke of army life here. Most likely based in reality. XD
I’ve heard about people eating it but I’ve never seen it myself and I’d never under any circumstances eat it either
Absolutely normal in Italy, most medium size/big supermarket have the horse meat section like pork, beef, chicken etc..
It’s not super common, but we do eat horse sausages.
Historically it was normal in the Rhineland region (don’t know about other regions), but nowadays these dishes are usually made with beef. Very rarely horse is still eaten.
I’m currently in Japan ok holiday and in Nagano prefecture horse sashimi and horse nigiri is a local delicacy. I couldn’t bring myself to try it.
No.
Apart from a few years where our Lasagne & Burgers from 2013 and earlier had illegal horse meat in them.
Like, the UK, it isn’t illegal to consume Horse Meat. But Due to the Normans, we don’t typically regard horses for consumption, and so they tend to get medication & other products that are banned from entering the human meat market.
Is mettwurst a word in the Finnish language?
I would have thought that it was German.
Mettwurst (similar to salami) in Germany, in my opinion, never contains horse meat. But I’m not an expert on this.
Horse meat was normal in Norway in the Viking age, but consuming it became a symbol of heathendom and was banned by Christians. That’s where the cultural taboo in these parts came from. Still, horse meat has always been eaten to some extent, and is still an important ingredient in some sausages.
https://www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-history-food-history/horse-meat-was-banned-over-1000-years-ago-but-that-did-not-keep-people-from-eating-it/2276089
I feel like it’s very common in Belgium. You can find it in some supermarkets and there are some towns that are famous for horse meat. Vilvoorde has many restaurants that specialize in horse meat dishes and horse sausage in Lokeren is quite famous.
Personally I prefer horse meat to cow meat.