France dates its taste for horse meat to the Revolution. With the fall of the aristocracy, its auxiliaries had to find new means of subsistence. Just as hairdressers and tailors set themselves up to serve commoners, the horses maintained by aristocracy as a sign of prestige ended up alleviating the hunger of lower classes. It was during the Napoleonic campaigns when the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon’s Grand Army, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, advised the starving troops to eat the meat of horses. At the siege of Alexandria, the meat of young Arab horses relieved an epidemic of scurvy. At the battle of Eylau in 1807, Larrey served horse as soup and bœuf à la mode. In Aspern-Essling (1809), cut from the supply lines, the cavalry used the horses’ breastplates as cooking pots and gunpowder as seasoning, and thus founded a tradition.

During the Siege of 1870-71, horse meat was eaten by anyone who could afford it, partly because of a shortage of fresh meat in the blockaded city, and also because horses were eating grain which was needed by the human populace. Many Parisians gained a taste for horse meat during the siege, and after the war ended, horse meat remained popular. Likewise, in other places and times of siege or starvation, horses are viewed as a food source of last resort.

Despite the general Anglophone taboo, horse and donkey meat was eaten in Britain, especially in Yorkshire, until the 1930s, and in times of post-war food shortage surged in popularity in the United States and was considered for use in hospitals. A 2007 Time magazine article about horse meat brought in from Canada to the United States characterized the meat as sweet, rich, superlean, oddly soft meat, and closer to beef than venison. Horse meat exports peaked at 9,327 tons 1986, declining to 3,000 tons in 2003. The two abattoirs in Australia licensed to export horse meat are Belgian-owned. They are at Peterborough in South Australia (Metro Velda Pty Ltd) and Caboolture abattoir in Queensland (Meramist Pty Ltd). A British agriculture industry website reported that Australian horse meat production levels had risen to 24,000 tons by 2009.

On 30 June 2010, Agriculture Minister Terry Redman granted final approval to Western Australia butcher Vince Garreffa to sell horse meat for human consumption. Nedlands restaurateur Pierre Ichallalene announced plans to do a taster on Bastille Day and to put horse meat dishes on the menu if there’s a good reaction. Mr. Redman said that the Government would "consider extending approvals should the public appetite for horse demand it".

Mr. Garreffa is the owner of Mondo Di Carne, a major wholesale meat supplier which supplies many cafes restaurants & hotels in Western Australia. He commented that there is no domestic market for horse meat, but there is a successful export market, which he believes Western Australia should have a share of.

By July 2, an online petition had been created to stop the sale of horse meat for human consumption in Western Australia. This decision has caused some outrage with a petition started to be signed to overturn this decision from the Department of Agriculture. However several local newspaper forums indicated that the general public were not greatly biased either way, in fact many voiced their openness for alternate meats.

 China

See also: Chinese cuisine

Horse meat is not available in most parts of China, although it is generally acceptable to Chinese. Its lack of popularity is mostly due to its low availability and some rumors saying that horse meat tastes bad or it is bad for health, even poisonous. In Compendium of Materia Medica, a pharmaceutical text published in 1596, Li Shizhen wrote "To relieve toxin caused by eating horse meat, one can drink carrot juice and eat almond." Today, in southern China, there are locally famous dishes such as Horse Meat Rice Vermicelli (马肉米粉) in Guilin. In the northwest, Kazakhs eat horse meat (see below). In Hebei province and Beijing, Donkey Burger （驴肉火烧） is a popular snack.Donkey Burger is made of stewed donkey meat in a baked Chinese bun. The two most popular versions of Donkey Burger originate from Hejian and Baoding in Hebei province.

 Kazakhstan

See also: Kazakh cuisine

In Kazakhstan horse meat is a large part of the diet, due mainly to the nomadic roots of the population. Some of the dishes include sausages called kazy and shuzhuk made from the meat using the guts as the sausage skin, zhaya made from hip meat which is smoked and boiled, zhal made from neck fat which is smoked and boiled, karta made from a section of the rectum which is smoked and boiled, and sur-yet which is kept as dried meat.

 Indonesia

See also: Indonesian cuisine

In Indonesia, one type of satay (chunks of grilled meat served with spicy sauce) known as Horse Satay (Javanese:sate jaran, Indonesian:sate kuda) is made from horse meat. This delicacy from Yogyakarta is served with sliced fresh shallot (small red onion), pepper, and sweet soy sauce.

 Japan

See also: Japanese cuisine

There is also a dessert made from horse meat called basashi ice cream. The company that makes it is known for its unusual ice cream flavors, many of which have limited popularity.

 Mongolia

In modern times, Mongols prefer beef and mutton, though during the extremely cold Mongolian winter, many people prefer horse meat due to its low cholesterol . It is kept non-frozen and traditionally people think horse meat helps warms them up.

Other Asian nations import processed horse meat from Mongolia.

Europe

Austria

See also: Austrian cuisine

. Besides being served raw, it can be broiled for a short period, producing a crusty exterior and a raw, moist interior. Smoked horse meat is very popular as breakfast and sandwich meat. Horse steaks are also very popular; the city of Vilvoorde has a few restaurants specializing in this dish. Horse-sausage is a well known local specialty in Lokeren with European recognition.

 France

Luxembourg

Horse meat is commonly found on menus in Luxembourg.

Malta

See also: Maltese cuisine

In Malta, stallion meat (Maltese: Laħam taż-żiemel) is commonly used in various dishes. It is usually fried or baked in a white wine sauce. A few horse meat shops still exist and a few restaurants serve it for locals and tourists.

 Netherlands

See also: Dutch cuisine

 Norway

See also: Norwegian cuisine

In Norway horse meat is commonly used in cured meats, such as vossakorv and svartpølse, and less commonly as steak, hestebiff.

In pre-Christian Norway, horse was seen as an expensive animal. To eat a horse was to show that you had great wealth, and to sacrifice a horse to the gods was seen as the greatest gift you could give. When Norwegians adopted Christianity, horse-eating became taboo as it was a religious act for pagans, and thus it was considered a sign of heresy.

Poland

See also: Polish cuisine

Used in production of kabanos, recently declining in popularity. Live, old horses are often being exported to Italy to be slaughtered. This practice also garners controversy. Horses in Poland are treated mostly as companions and majority of society is against the live export to Italy. You can find some shelters for old and unwanted horses that are rescued from slaughter, The Tara Rescue and The Animals of Eulalia Faundation.

Serbia

See also: Serbian cuisine

Horse meat is generally available in Serbia, and is highly popular in the traditional cuisine. It is often recommended by General Practitioners to persons who suffers from lack of red blood cells. It is widely available to buy at Farmers’ markets.

 Slovenia

See also: Slovenian cuisine

Horse meat is generally available in Slovenia, and is highly popular in the traditional cuisine, especially in the central region of Carniola and in the Kras region. Colt steak (žrebičkov zrezek) is available in some restaurants and there is a popular fast-food restaurant in Ljubljana called Hot-Horse that serves hamburgers made of horse meat.

Sweden

See also: Swedish cuisine

Smoked/cured horse meat is widely available as a cold cut under the name hamburgerkött (hamburger meat). It tends to be very thinly sliced and fairly salty, slightly reminiscent of deli-style ham. Gustafskorv, a smoked sausage made from horse meat, is also quite popular, especially in the province of Dalarna, where it’s made. It is similar to salami or medwurst and is used as an alternative to them on sandwiches. It is also possible to order horse beef from some well-stocked grocery stores.

Switzerland

See also: Swiss cuisine

In Switzerland horse meat may be used in Fondue Bourguignonne. Horse steak is also quite common, especially in the French-speaking West, but also more and more in the German-speaking part. A speciality known as mostbröckli is made with beef or horse meat. Horse meat is also used for a great range of sausages in the German-speaking North of Switzerland. Like in Northern Italy, in the Italian-speaking South, local "salametti" (sausages) are sometimes made with horse meat.

United Kingdom

See also: British cuisine

In the United Kingdom the slaughter, preparation and consumption of horses for food is not against the law, although in practice it has been out of fashion since the 1930s and there is a strong taboo against it. It was eaten when other meats were scarce, such as during times of war (as was whale meat, never popular and now also taboo). The sale of horse meat in supermarkets and butchers is minimal, and most of the horse meat consumed in the UK is imported from Europe, predominantly the South of France, where it is more widely available. Horse meat may be consumed inadvertently. A 2003 Food Standards Agency investigation revealed that salami and similar products such as chorizo and pastrami sometimes contain horse meat, without this ingredient being listed. Listing is legally required.

Ukraine

In Ukraine, especially in Crimea and other southern steppe regions, horse meat is consumed in the form of sausages called Mahan and Sudzhuk. These particular sausages are traditional food of the Crimean Tatar population.

 North America

Canada

See also: Canadian cuisine

Agriculture in Quebec seems to prosper under the prohibitions from the United States. There is a thriving horse meat business in Quebec; the meat is available in most supermarket chains. Horse meat is also for sale at the other end of the country, in Granville Island Market in downtown Vancouver where, according to a Time magazine reviewer who smuggled it into the United States, it turned out to be a "sweet, rich, superlean, oddly soft meat, closer to beef than venison". Horse meat is also available in high end Toronto butchers and supermarkets. Aside from the heritage of French cuisine at one end of the country and the adventurous foodies of Vancouver at the other, however, the majority of Canada shares the horse meat taboo with the rest of the Anglosphere. This mentality is especially evident in Alberta, where strong horse racing and breeding industries and cultures have existed since the province’s founding.

United States

See also: Cuisine of the United States

See also: Horse slaughter#The underlying issue in the United States

Horse meat is rarely eaten in the United States. Horses are raised instead as pets, for working purposes (border patrol, police work, and ranching), or for sport. Horse meat holds a very similar taboo in American culture, the same as the one found in the United Kingdom previously described, except that it is rarely even imported.

Restriction of human consumption of horse meat in the U.S. has generally involved legislation at the state and local levels. In 1915, for example, the New York City Board of Health amended the sanitary code, making it legal to sell horse meat. During World War II, due to the low supply and high price of beef, New Jersey legalized its sale, but at war’s end, the state again prohibited the sale of horse meat.

In 1951, Time magazine reported from Portland, Ore.: “Horsemeat, hitherto eaten as a stunt or only as a last resort, was becoming an important item on Portland tables. Now there were three times as many horse butchers, selling three times as much meat.” Noting that “people who used to pretend it was for the dog now came right out and said it was going on the table,” and providing tips for cooking pot roast of horse and equine fillets. A similar situation unfolded in 1973, when inflation raised the cost of traditional meats. Time reported that “Carlson’s, a butcher shop in Westbrook, Conn., that recently converted to horse meat exclusively, now sells about 6,000 pounds of the stuff a day.” The shop produced a 28-page guide called “Carlson’s Horsemeat Cook Book,” with recipes for chili con carne, German meatballs, beery horsemeat, and more.

Harvard University’s Faculty Club had horse meat on the menu for over one hundred years, until 1985.

Until 2007, a few horse meat slaughterhouses still existed in the United States, selling meat to zoos to feed their carnivores, and exporting it for human consumption, but the last one, Cavel International in Dekalb, Illinois was closed by court order in 2007. The closure reportedly caused a surplus of horses in Illinois.

 Mexico

As of 2005, Mexico was the second largest producer of horse meat in the world. It is used there both for human consumption and animal food.

South America

 Chile

See also: Chilean cuisine

In Chile it is used in charqui. Both in Chile and Argentina horse meat was the main source of nutrition for the nomadic indigenous tribes of the pampas, which promptly switched from a guanaco -based economy to a horse-based one when the horses brought by the Spaniards bred naturally and became feral. This applies specially for the Pampa and Mapuche nations, who become fierce warriors on horseback. Pretty much like the Tatars, they ate raw horse meat and milked their animals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Shops in meat and meat products, game and poultry