Could you eat every part of a horse?

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Like the bones and stuff too, not just that swishy tail.
Well, you could boil the bones for stock and then crack them for the marrow. Eating the actual skeleton bit? Dunno. And you could make gelatin from the hooves. As far as I know everything else is edible except the teeth, though I'd recommend washing some bits out really thoroughly.
 
I guess for this we'll have to consult the Monster Menu-all.

The first entry for horse is under 'normal meats'. It's described as a stringy mutton with lots of crunchy bits. It doesn't say you can eat the entire horse, but then it doesn't say you can't either.

The second entry is for hippocampus - half horse, half fish. Fishy, but similar to beef in texture. Also considered a normal meat, but if you're exposed to sunlight or magical light soon after eating, you're likely to gain some kind of aquatic mutation if you don't swap hindquarters with the nearest creature larger than a mouse. Can you eat the whole thing? Presumably you'd scale it and discard the offal. Are there really small bones, like in salmon? We don't know.

The final horsey entry is the hippogriff. Tastes like chicken, but otherwise normal meat. No mention of magical effects. I'm almost certain you couldn't eat the beak, feathers or talons. Ever tried the chicken feet at a Chinese restaurant?
 
Basically yes, you'd find a way to use as much of the animal as possible for something rather than throwing useful components away. This article is a bit food-hipstery, but it's always been standard in poorer communities who didn't have a choice and just had to find ways to make potentially-unappetising cuts into meals.
 
Most of us have already had some parts of horse if we've ever eaten non-vegan gelatin products, (most likely skin, bones, cartilage, & hooves bought en masse with less concern about sourcing).

Horse hair is actually one of the secret methods African slaves used to assassinate their enemies, by cutting it tiny and disguising it in the target's food. Within three days, after consuming "enough," the abdomen bloats and swells with watery stuff (lymph? plasma?) in an effort to keep the now heavily perforated and tender intestines away from more irritating contact with everything. The person usually dies in agony, with thirst and belly pain, and bloating, as this is impossible to recover from at this extent. It is known as the Water Belly Death*.

So, no, you can't. Don't eat chopped up horse hair. :smile: And eating it unchopped likely constitutes a choking hazard, too, just like kudzu noodles. Now you know.

* I forgot which book I got that one, could have been "Serpent & the Rainbow," some Voudoun/Santeria/Candomblé text, or some other African Diaspora text I had for class. The secret is being a good cook who can disguise your ingredients. See also the recent book & movie phenom, "The Help."

Horse sashimi is delicious, by the way.
 

That picture fascinates me.

Why is the duck first at the food end? I don't think I've ever eaten duck. Is it really that common for others to eat duck? I would think it would be either cow or chicken first at that end, followed by the pig.

And then horse before bunny? I've heard of eating horse, but I've always heard of it as undesirable, while I've often heard rabbit is pretty good.

Then it goes straight from bunny to dog? Like, if you're OK with bunny, then nibbling on a bit of golden retriever is probably good if you've got the munchies? Huh? Why is a basset hound so much more a "pet" than a golden retreiver? And why aren't Dachshunds anywhere on the spectrum? I don't know a single person who hasn't made a joke out of cooking up a "hot dog." Small adult fat cats are more edible than kittens? Kittens are better eating than bulldogs which are more reasonable food than full grown domestic shorthair cats?

I've always heard that cats make good burritos, but I've never tried.

Who made this spectrum and what was going through their mind?
 
I reckon those people vocally longing for the good old days of the 1950s are wilfully ignoring how crazy they would seem to us now.
1950's fashion? Yay!
1950's social norms? Nay!
Why is the duck first at the food end? I don't think I've ever eaten duck. Is it really that common for others to eat duck? I would think it would be either cow or chicken first at that end, followed by the pig.
Duck's nice, it's quite fatty, but roasts up really well. Most chinese places over here do it as standard, it's rarer but not unheard of elsewhere. It's fairly popular on the continent too.
 
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Duck's nice, it's quite fatty, but roasts up really well. Most chinese places over here do it as standard, it's rarer but not unheard of elsewhere. It's fairly popular on the continent too.
Dang, you beat me to it. Duck is fatty with a delicious crispy skin and has a lot more rich dark meat than chicken. According to Wikipedia, where I live is 50% Asian-American so I guess that helps explain why it's not particularly hard to find around here. Poultry is extremely popular in the community with many poultry-focused restaurants. We even have a specialty butcher 3 blocks away that deals solely in poultry.
 
Love duck, it is common in Chinese cuisine and so aa Brock Savage Brock Savage says not unusual on the West Coast.

I like to buy half a BBQ duck from a cash-only hole in the wall in our local Chinatown. Duck in plum sauce...yum. May need to order some tonight now.
 
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Duck is delicious in some contexts. But we need to concentrate on the real topic here. Eating an entire horse.

Horses are known philanderers and also just general cheats. They should be consumed whole if possible.
 
Oh man, now I have to mention the Duck Story. Hopefully this won't get me into too much trouble.

Many moons ago, before I entered my brain-dead phase and married the Asshole, me and the girl I was rooming with at the time we're getting ready for Christmas. We were going to head out later in the day to briefly see our respective families, but we were also fixing Christmas dinner for ourselves and a couple of friends in the early afternoon. Both of us were thinking that we eventually needed to know how to fix Christmas dinner when we each eventually got married, and this would be a training-wheels attempt with friends who wouldn't be overly judgmental. Besides the various sides and a couple of desserts, I fixed up a ham, and she did up a duck. Overall, it went reasonably well.

As we get back later that evening from seeing or families, we see that the lock to our apartment door has been broken. Yep, you guessed it, we were robbed on Christmas day while we were out. Some jewelry was taken (not that either of us had much of that), but mostly it was the various electronics that the thieves had apparently came for. Upset and rattled, we called the police.

While the cops were doing their thing, our friend Marc called. For purposes of this story, I need to mention that Marc was black (well, still is, presumably). He had wanted to know if we wanted to hang out, and maybe watch a movie. When I told him what had happened, he rushed over to see if there was anything he could do to help.

Marc arrived, just as the police were leaving. As he was talking to my roommate, I went to the kitchen to get myself a beer from the fridge. I opened the refrigerator door... and after a moment of stunned silence, I collapsed to to floor, laughing hysterically. The two of them rush in to see what's wrong, and I just pointed at the open refrigerator, still gasping for breath and unable to speak.

Besides everything else they had taken, the thieves had raided our fridge. Most of the food was gone, including the ham, as well as the beer.

But they had left the duck.

Marc just shook his head, and said, "Man, I hate to say it, but it must have been some brothers who robbed you." My roommate asked why he thought so. "Cause I don't know of any black man who actually likes eating duck!"
 
That picture fascinates me.

Why is the duck first at the food end? I don't think I've ever eaten duck. Is it really that common for others to eat duck? I would think it would be either cow or chicken first at that end, followed by the pig.

And then horse before bunny? I've heard of eating horse, but I've always heard of it as undesirable, while I've often heard rabbit is pretty good.

Then it goes straight from bunny to dog? Like, if you're OK with bunny, then nibbling on a bit of golden retriever is probably good if you've got the munchies? Huh? Why is a basset hound so much more a "pet" than a golden retreiver? And why aren't Dachshunds anywhere on the spectrum? I don't know a single person who hasn't made a joke out of cooking up a "hot dog." Small adult fat cats are more edible than kittens? Kittens are better eating than bulldogs which are more reasonable food than full grown domestic shorthair cats?

I've always heard that cats make good burritos, but I've never tried.

Who made this spectrum and what was going through their mind?
A couple years ago the culinary industry here was rocked with controversy because a restaurant started serving rabbit on the menu. Kid you not people were out in front of the restaurant with signs protesting that they served rabbit. There was eventually a conversation between the protestors and the head honchos of the local restaurant industry where the chefs explained that every piece of meat you eat is maximum a year old.
 
If I had to guess, the poster was designed is from an activist's perspective to "challenge assumptions and change paradigms." Like many attempts to "hack the mainstream" by activists, the message came across as weird. confused, and silly.
The first time I saw that picture, my immediate thought was "between the herbivores and the carnivores, obviously".
 
A couple years ago the culinary industry here was rocked with controversy because a restaurant started serving rabbit on the menu. Kid you not people were out in front of the restaurant with signs protesting that they served rabbit. There was eventually a conversation between the protestors and the head honchos of the local restaurant industry where the chefs explained that every piece of meat you eat is maximum a year old.

Jesus Christ.

As a colossal liberal I cringe at some modern day activism. There is a profound misunderstanding there of the way human nature works. Like, even getting people to stop eating meat - a noble goal that I agree with - is trying to shame them for it. Like that will do anything other than have them double down unthinkingly on it so they can never be reached.

This is another nonsense thing. Rabbit is widely eaten in the world, you see it especially in the country here, and although it is not so common these days how could these people be so ignorant?
 
Jesus Christ.

As a colossal liberal I cringe at some modern day activism. There is a profound misunderstanding there of the way human nature works. Like, even getting people to stop eating meat - a noble goal that I agree with - is trying to shame them for it. Like that will do anything other than have them double down unthinkingly on it so they can never be reached.
It is especially cringe-inducing when one agrees with the intended message. Instead of lecturing from on high that eating meat is bad and people should feel bad for eating meat I would appeal to Joe Sixpacks' self interest. If was on the marketing team first thing I'd do is sponsor some vegetarian and semi-vegetarian athletes to show Joe Sixpack that one can reduce or eliminate animal protein from their diet and still be a vigorous stud.
 
It's the Easter bunny. Ever since it came around people have been thinking that rabbits are cute.
In reality they're blood thirsty monsters, most accurately portrayed in Watership Downs and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
 
As a colossal liberal I cringe at some modern day activism. There is a profound misunderstanding there of the way human nature works. Like, even getting people to stop eating meat - a noble goal that I agree with - is trying to shame them for it. Like that will do anything other than have them double down unthinkingly on it so they can never be reached.
Yeah. It's the wrong tactic.

The tipping point is coming, and given how much meat lobbys are doing to fight against meat alternatives, they clearly think it's coming soon. Meat is already about as good as it's ever going to get, and the average person probably isn't eating high-quality meat anyway; whereas the alternatives are getting better and cheaper each year, and there's still a lot of room for them to continue improving and prices to keep coming down. We're not far away from the point where the alternatives are good enough and many people will switch over simply for health and cost reasons.

Personally I'm not a vegetarian, I haven't found anything that replicates a good sausage or chorizo properly, but I have drastically cut down on my meat consumption, and that's the way I think it's going to go for a lot of people; meat is going to go from a standard meal component to something that we have less often, but when we do it's higher quality.
 
I thought chefs basically had to add a bunch of lard or other fat because it is too lean. Please illuminate me.
Really depends on the dish being prepared. I've had had it many ways and dont recall any more fat of any sort being added that was out of line with how the dish would normally be prepared. My favorites being rabbit fried rice (think chicken fried rice but with rabbit), rabbit jambalaya, pan fried in butter (actually not that much differently than I do pork chops), and of course hassenpfeffer.
 
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