Foie Gras Poutine: Food Oddity of the Week (not for the weak)

6-27-2007 @2:43PM paul said... I have actually had this and been to au pied de couchon, it is amazing. It sounds gross but tastes so good. Their signiture dish, a pigs angle stuffed with foie gras is also great.
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6-27-2007 @8:07PM Silver_Potato said... I've never had Poutine but damn that looks good.
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6-27-2007 @8:56PM Andi said... This dish is otherwise known as Animal Cruelty Special.

BTW...for all the uneducated...it's illegal to consume any part of the horse in the United States. Thank God.
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6-27-2007 @10:01PM Silver_Potato said... I've never had Horse meat so could tell me what exactly is so wrong with it?
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6-27-2007 @11:23PM Dmnkly said... Hey, Andi...

Before educating all of us, how about educating yourself first?

Consuming horse meat is perfectly legal in the United States, as it is in Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and a number of Scandinavian countries (and many more) where it is and has been enjoyed in a bevy of traditional dishes for centuries.

There HAVE been attempts at the federal and state level, with varying levels of success, to ban the commercial slaughter and export of horse meat. The last commercial horse slaughterhouse in the U.S., in Illinois, is the target of state legislation attempting to close it down, but it is still operating while all of the legal wrangling is going on. But even if it is eventually closed, there's still nothing on the books that prohibits eating horsemeat.

To answer your question, Silver_Potato, most proponents of a horse meat ban feel that horses should be companion animals, not food. There are also (sometimes legitimate) concerns about how humane the slaughter is or isn't at the slaughtering facilities, but it certainly isn't significantly better or worse than most beef/chicken/pork production. Like foie gras, however, horse meat is a soft target and the arguments for bans usually center more around rhetoric and passion than actual fact.

Personally, it seems to me that if you think eating horse is wrong you should avoid eating horse (or whatever animal you find objectionable) instead of trying to force that subjective belief on everybody else in the country, but apparently that's just CRAAAAAAZY talk these days. "MY personal belief should be LAW" appears to be the rule of the day for folks like Andi.
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6-28-2007 @12:55AM Silver_Potato said... Thanks Dmnkly
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6-28-2007 @11:45AM k said... Thanks, #6. Interesting, informative, well-said.
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6-28-2007 @2:27PM Adriane said... I was just having this conversation about horsemeat last night, actually. Personally I've never quite understood why people get so bent out of shape about consuming food "out of the norm". Some people freak about consuming horse, guinea pig, etc...Why? Because somewhere someone considers them a pet? Seems a bit anthropomorphic.
Out of sheer curiousity, I wonder how india feels about the mass beef consumption in America?
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6-28-2007 @4:07PM Andi said... Do YOUR research. Although it is legal to transport and to slaughter (although it turns out to be illegal for slaughter for human consumption in Texas), it IS ILLEGAL to actually consume it in most states!

As for why it's more of an issue, first off, research YouTube and see how inhumane this process is. I especially like the video where they accidentally cut off the horse's leg. Second off, we take these animals and routinely breed them NOT to be used for slaughter but as riding animals, and then when we're done with them we are left with our choices of what to do with them. A lot of people are humane and keep them for the rest of their natural lives, calling the vet when it's time. But the racing industry and the PMU industry feed the slaughterhouses. Proof? Ever since they discovered that the two Texas slaughterhouses have been illegally slaughtering horses for human consumption, a lot of trainers have gone broke, or have had to ship their horses to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered (yeah, look up the Mexican method while you're at it, you'll never want to eat meat again). There's even talk of trainers letting their horses go, and filling the stall with the next racehorse.

Now...these animals give their all for what they are asked to do, as opposed to cows or pigs that generally just stand around doing nothing till the big trip. They are usually pampered and treated well, trained to carry a rider or full a cart, and then all of a sudden they are loaded onto a trailer and it's "bye-bye". Call me soft, but I don't think it's quite the same as the beef slaughterhouses.

One more thing: All three slaughter plants are foreign-owned, and the majority of the meat goes abroad. Yet, they are paying next to nothing on taxes to ship it out. Does that seem fair? Nope.
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6-28-2007 @4:26PM Andi said... By the way...would one personal belief ban something like this? No...it's taken millions of people and even more hours.

Now just to ban transport also. The Illinois plant got shut down, I just realized. Hope you enjoyed those fries!
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6-29-2007 @12:38AM Dmnkly said... “Do YOUR research. Although it is legal to transport and to slaughter (although it turns out to be illegal for slaughter for human consumption in Texas), it IS ILLEGAL to actually consume it in most states!”

Okay, Andi, for the moment let’s set aside that you went from saying “in the United States” to “in most states” in six comments. So, ignoring your first comment and giving you the most beneficial interpretation of the word “most,” that means you’re saying there are laws in 26 states that make it illegal to eat horsemeat. I’m aware of one – California – so a blanket statement that it’s legal probably wasn’t appropriate. But that still leaves 49. What are the others? In my reading, this claim that it’s illegal nationwide is oft-cited and never referenced. My suspicion is that it stems from misreadings of the federal action over the past few years (which resulted in decreased funding for inspections of horsemeat, and there were other proposals to ban slaughter that were never ratified, but nothing addressing consumption). So what are the other 25? Honest question. If I’m wrong, I’ll be happy to eat crow (unless that’s also illegal), but as many times as I’ve heard various blogs and commenters mirror your claim, I’ve yet to see a reference, nor can I find one.

And, Andi, honest now... you mention inhumane slaughter, you mention that horses live differently than cattle, and you mention that the exports are barely taxed. So... again, honest, now... if the Illinois slaughterhouse bred horses that weren’t recreational horses or racing horses, left them in pens (or fields) to graze like cattle, slaughtered them in a manner you considered humane, and then paid hefty taxes on the exports, would you cease to object? Really? Honestly? Tell me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think it’s about the method of slaughter, I don’t think it’s about the lives the horses lead up to slaughter, and I don’t think it’s about the taxes. Because if it were, you wouldn’t be supporting a ban on consuming horse meat, you’d be supporting legislation for humane slaughter, restrictions on breeding and increased taxation on foreign-owned slaughterhouses. So if it isn’t the simple arbitrary act of eating horse that you’re objecting to, why ban it? And if it is simply that you think there’s something intrinsically wrong with eating horse regardless of the circumstances surrounding that horse’s slaughter, how can you possibly defend forcing that belief on others?

“Call me soft, but I don't think it's quite the same as the beef slaughterhouses.”
“By the way...would one personal belief ban something like this? No...it's taken millions of people”

Given the millions who think beef should also be illegal, if you don’t see the humor here, I can’t help you. And no, I’m not calling you soft. Most people cringe at the thought of eating horse, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But horse meat shouldn’t be banned for those who don’t any more than beef should be banned on account of the nation’s millions of Hindus, pork on account of the nation’s millions of Muslims and orthodox Jews, or all meat, for that matter, on account of the nation’s millions of Buddhists and Vegans (with apologies for the very broad generalizations... I hope the point is clear). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I suspect that you (like many) simply have a visceral reaction to horse slaughter, and you’re seeking arguments to justify your feelings rather than stepping back, taking a large-scale objective view and realizing that your objection to horse slaughter isn’t special among the multitude of personal ethical food choices people around the world make every day, without needing the spectre of broad-sweeping legislation to make their decisions for them.
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6-29-2007 @12:30AM Silver_Potato said... You know Andi you've convinced me I'm going to go eat horse now. Yum!

I bet they make great BBQ.
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6-29-2007 @12:09PM Adriane said... Well said, Dmnkly.

I don't quite understand how one could think it's okay for cattle and the like to go to slaughter just because "generally [they] just stand around doing nothing till the big trip." How is that justification?
(All I can think of is that movie Pulp Fiction in which they are discusing how a pig ceases to be a filthy animal if it has a better personality...)

Also, I don't think the words "research" and "Youtube" go together....[haha].
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6-29-2007 @11:54PM kevjohn said... I've had horse meat before, about 20 years ago when I lived in Cincinnati. I don't recall the flavor, so I can't say it tastes like chicken. But I do remember the flavor as being unremarkable, as in unremarkable from any other meat. If given the chance to sample some today I'd take it.

By the way, how funny is the title "The Horse Crisperer?"
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6-29-2007 @3:49PM Ima Wurdibitsch said... This whole argument wouldn't even be necessary if there'd been a book for children titled, "My Food, Flicka."
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6-29-2007 @4:08PM Dmnkly said... "I don't quite understand how one could think it's okay for cattle and the like to go to slaughter just because "generally [they] just stand around doing nothing till the big trip." How is that justification?"

Well, this obliquely brings up another point, which is that, to be clear, I don't mean to denigrate people who choose not to eat certain (or all) animal products. It's just that this argument that certain animals are companion animals and shouldn't be eaten is completely arbitrary. Any animal that you treat as a companion is a companion animal. It's certainly true that horses are more frequently seen as pets rather than meat in the U.S., but that's purely a cultural construct. There's nothing about a horse that makes it intrinsically a pet rather than a food product. People keep pigs as pets. People eat dogs and cats. Chickens and trout are fair game, but parrots and goldfish aren't? It's one thing to make these kind of arbitrary determinations on a personal level (I do too!), but how can you justify LAW based on "I like this animal more than this one"?

I guess the point is, if we're talking about cruel horse slaughtering procedures, then let's talk about whether or not there should be legislation addressing that. And if we're talking about whether or not it's intrinsically wrong to eat a horse, then let's talk about whether or not there should be legislation addressing that. But using an argument against inhumane slaughter in support of a ban on consumption doesn't make any damn sense, no matter how effective of a smokescreen it may be. They have the horse in common, but they're separate issues.
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7-02-2007 @11:07AM Jewel said... Just a little bit of background regarding horse meat consumption:

According to Bessie Berry, Manager, USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline ,Horse was commonly eaten in many countries in pre-Christian Europe, but not in Islamic or Jewish countries, since under Mosaic Law horse meat is considered unclean because it conformed to the formula of an animal that was not at the same time cloven-hoofed and cud-chewing. In pre-Christian times horse meat eating in northern Europe figured prominently in Teutonic religious ceremonies, particularly those associated with the worship of the god Odin.
In 732 A.D. Pope Gregory III began a concerted effort to stop this pagan practice, and it has been said that the people of Iceland were reluctant to embrace Christianity for some time largely over the issue of giving up horse meat. In some countries the effects of this prohibition by the Catholic Church have lingered, and horse meat prejudices have progressed from taboos to avoidance to abhorrence. Today, however, horse meat is commonly consumed in many European countries.
Although many Americans have an aversion to eating horse meat, the horse meat industry in the U.S. is now rivaling the beef and pork industries in the amounts of fresh meat shipped abroad. In Sweden horse meat outsells lamb and mutton combined. It is also commonly consumed in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, but it is most popular in Belgium and France.

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7-03-2007 @8:37PM rcianci said... There are quite a few family restaurants in Montreal, Belgian mostly, that serve horse steak and horse tartare. It's no big deal. And yes, most of this horse meat comes from slaughterhouses in the U.S.
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