About 4.7 million horses are slaughtered every year, but you may rarely see anyone eating horse meat in real life.
Compared to common beef, mutton and donkey meat on the market, how does horse meat taste and nutritional value?
Meat is the main source of protein and fat for the human body, and it is also rich in nutrients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc, which is essential for human health.
Among all kinds of meat, beef, chicken and pork are the most common, while others such as duck and fish are also popular, but the frequency of consumption is far less than the former.
Although pork and chicken are the most commonly eaten meats, they are not the best tasting choices.
Donkey meat is considered more delicious, but whether it is cow, pig, chicken or donkey, it is a common animal in our daily life.
But why isn't horse meat often found on dinner tables?
The history of horses being tamed as human companions dates back about 5,800 years. The herbivores, known as Eocene horses, were small, emaciated and far less robust than today's horses, compared with animals that have long been tamed by humans, such as cats, dogs and pigs.
Over time, the horse evolved into the form we know today, liberating human labor and helping to develop everything from transportation to farming.
However, horse meat has lower muscle fullness, slower growth, and is expensive to breed. Compared to other common food animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens, horses need more space to run and require more refined feed to gain weight.
As a result, there are few farms around the world that can raise horses and produce meat, and those that do exist are not for food purposes.
In addition, throughout history, horses have played an important role in wars.
Cavalry played an important role in the ancient battlefield, and heavy cavalry was the strategic weapon of a country.
Horses are not only combat partners on the battlefield, but also one of the main means of transportation during the inconvenient period of ancient transportation.
Although horsemeat is rich in nutrients, its muscle fibers are rough and require great cooking skills to make it delicious.
This also limits the use of horse meat in dishes.
Despite this, there are still some countries in the world where the practice of eating horse meat exists, such as Kazakhstan, known as the "country on horseback".
Horses are not only a daily companion in these countries, but also a delicacy on the dinner table.
Kazakh people like to make horse meat into smoked, roasted, air-dried, sashimi and other delicacies, and are famous for their horse intestines.
Although most people do not eat horse meat today, we should respect the food culture and customs of different countries, and understand and tolerate each other. As time goes on, perhaps chefs will invent new cooking methods that will make horse meat more widely accepted.
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