Horsemeat

It's strange that, the softer we get about livestock the more we try to detatch ourselves with what happens to them before they are on our dinner plate. Not many of those of us that eat meat would be able to tuck into an animal that had lived with us prior to it's slaughter but we're happy to eat something that went through a very unpleasant end to it's life so we could eat it. And I'm including myself in this as a meat eater. I always had fantasies about living the self sufficient life but realised I couldn't hack the more unpleasant sides to it.

It's all about profit.

Sheesh.

Apart from the possible health issues of hormone contamination etc, I can't see the problem, apart from the emotional one. It's all dead flesh.

We ate some of our chickens and one of our geese. Actually the idea of getting a pair of geese was that they would breed and then we would have edible lawn-mowers. Goslings eat a lot of grass, you see. We have a lot of grass and it's on a steep slope and hard to cut.

Unfortunately, the goose died suddenly. We're not sure if she had a heart attack or if she had eaten foxglove leaves. We buried her.

Then the gander got aggressive in his grief (geese usally mate for life) and he wouldn't accept another goose as a companion. So DH had to kill him (humanely; I can give details if people want but thought I'd better refrain). Then we ate him. People tell you geese have a lot of fat on them. Bertie didn't.

So the goslings never happened and we never got to eat our home-grown lawn-mowers.

That's a shame I like geese. We used to eat our hens when they got too old and went off lay. That was in the days when the Egg Marketing Board would call round and collect eggs from small producers.

Dad used to stroke the hen until it was in a stupor before dispatching it. I learnt to pluck and draw the hen - but only once the head had been removed. I have this weird phobia about dead things but once the head has been removed the carcass is meat and. Don't have a problem.

..... and I don't have a problem.

We ate one of our cockerels last Sunday....delicious! We have one in the freezer and three more to kill. They are home bred but surplus to requirements so we usually kill them just before the next breeding season. We pluck them as soon as they are killed (easier when they are still warm) then hang them in a cold place overnight and draw them the next day. They usually weight between 4lbs and 6lbs when oven ready.

I didn't know that about geese [mating for life, that is]. What I do know is that there's no creature on the planet more angry than an angry goose [and I'm including charging rhinoceroses here as well].

Never felt so glad to be a vegetarian! Though even if I were a carnivore, I would still buy meat and make meals from scratch rather then buy packaged meals. A friend runs a horse sanctuary and said, apart from the obvious emotional factors for her, she would be unhappy to eat horse meat as they are given so many veterinary medications banned from human consumption. I think this may already have been covered here.
When we were meat-eaters we were given a delicious meat in Sweden, which turned out to be reindeer. Wish I hadn't asked! as we spent happy hours watching these beautiful beasts in the snow in the garden.

My issue is that it has been wrongly labelled, however what has really astonished me is that people would actually but frozen lasagne and bolognese ! ( or jars of ragu sauce. white sauce...)

We buy all our meat from a local butcher, he can tell where it came from, and who slaughtered it, and it is CHEAPER that the pre packaged meat in supermarkets that adds to waste through its inane packaging.

I guess I am lucky to still have a decent butcher , we drive there fortnightly as he's about 14 miles away, and stock up for the fortnight, and also get fruit, eggs etc from the market there

for any Dorset Grans - its Rawles in Bridport - they are brilliant !

Years ago we kept goats and chickens and ate both. My husband was a butcher at the time and would shoot and butcher the billy goats for us and for several local breeders. There is no market for male goats and most of them would mature into very smelly and aggressive animals if left. We also ate several pigs that we had reared. It was good to know that they had had happy lives and were killed humanely with no stress and no idea what was going to happen.
This is my main worry about the horse meat - I've seen livestock being transported round the continent and would hate to think what some of the horses must have gone through.

Yes Deedaa, my main concern too is the welfare of the animals. I don't understand why, in this day and age with efficient refrigerated lorries, there is any need to transport live animals over any distance greater than the nearest slaughter house.

I notice that the BBC has promoted this story, originally called a scandal, into a crisis now.

Why does the BBC keep using the words 'tainted' and 'contaminated' about this issue....implying that there is a health risk....then they say there isn't....is this part of the promotion?

If you buy such rubbish quality meat and meat products, then horsemeat is the least of your worries. I have absolutely no problem eating horsemeat and have done so many times in Europe. The problem as Riverwalk says is what other regulations they are flouting. The answer is probably as many as they think they can get away with. Use your butcher!

I bought tickets for the Grand National. My doctor says I should watch what I eat! Just trying to lighten the tone. Come On....!! If you're really worried about what you eat you don't buy rubbish ready prepared, processed food from the Food Industry. Simples!!

Gosh, I wouldn't have thought of buying fresh meat from the butcher instead of expensive, tasteless frozen ready meals. Thank you so much for the suggestion. Could you also explain to me how to suck eggs?

Don't be rotten, absent

Why not Bags?

Because it's rotten, of course. I don't think you need to be dense either. What's eating you?

A welter of posts stating the obvious probably.

Why not? Too many people need to be told over and over again cheapest is often dearest health wise .and the more responsible people like BoomerB pass the message on to heir DCs and their GCs the better. And think how long it took to get the smoking message over.

Am I worried? Not for myself, no - for one thing I have enjoyed horse in the past, and for another I don't buy manufactured meals, preferring to cook for myself.

For others, I do worry, because they buy ready-made hamburgers, lasagne, bolognaise ragu and so on, and they have a right to expect that the meat should be wholesome and as described on labelling. When it isn't as advertised, then they are being defrauded.

But a plea - will people please stop talking about meat being 'contaminated' in this matter, unless there is something harmful added, a chemical or a toxin of some kind? I suppose what is meant by our ill-educated journalists is 'adulterated' - a different kettle of sea-horse fish altogether.

The posts above abut keeping and eating poultry suddenly brought back a memory of a favourite toy - the discarded chicken's foot... we boys would chase the girls with one of those, pulling on the tendons to make it 'claw' as we did so... those girls would scream in (delicious) fear... Mind you, the Chinese eat them - the feet, not the girls - as far as I know - but having tried it once, never again. One of the few dishes I have experienced that have nothing whatsoever to recommend them. I suppose I could have chased a waitress with one...

feetle, your use of the word unadulterated reminded me of a time when I drove my brother, who was unemployed and depressed at the time, for a day's outing from York to Scarborough. We had a snackeroo in a cafe. Mine was a knickerbocker glory. Before ordering it, I asked the waitresss if it was "real cream" on top. She assured me it was. However when the glory came, I immediately knew it wasn't unadulterated cream because it was too white. It was out of one of those spray cans of cream, and yes, it was 'real' but with the addition of whatever ingredient it is that makes it fluffy and super white and without quite the right cream taste. I spooned it off the top, plonked it on the saucer and said to my brother that I should have asked whether it was unadulterated cream but he said, and he was probably right, that she wouldn't have understood me

The nicest thing about that day was that my brother told me he hadn't laughed so much in ages. I think it was then that I realised just how low he'd been feeling.