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Showing posts from January 6, 2011

Horsemeat

There, apparently, is a huge debate going on the use of horsemeat in the human food chain. I’ve eaten horse meat and it’s rather tasty. I always loved Jeffrey Steingartens’ response a few years ago to some angry flack he received from Vogue readers when he mentioned the use of horse fat in cooking France. I’m going to quote it directly as I found it an astonishing response.: From Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything. ‘When this article appeared, an avid horsewoman organized a campaign against Vogue for verbal cruelty to horses. Vogue mollified her by publishing, unedited, a letter abusing the author. I replied “ The United States is the largest horse-meat exporter in the world (as many as 400,000 animals a year are sent to slaughter) because it has the largest recreational horse population. These animals become ‘surplus’ when horse lovers unnecessarily breed their pets, owners sell their racehorse after only a few years, and recreational riders trade up. Slaughter and expor...