Readers are probably aware of the brouhaha going on in England at present, where it's been discovered that up to a third of the meat in 'value burgers' sold in supermarkets is actually horsemeat rather than beef. This has upset many in a horse-loving country like England.
Giles Coren, writing in the Times, puts such people in their place.
"What on earth did you think they put in them? Prime cuts of delicious free-range, organic, rare breed, heritage beef, grass-fed, Eton-educated, humanely slaughtered, dry-aged and hand-ground by fairies...?"
Peter
LOL, classic 'English' understatement there... :-)
ReplyDeleteHey, the American Indians - oops, I mean "Native Americans," thought horse meat was the best, much better than beef.
ReplyDeleteSo don't worry, Britons, your ground beef is probably tastier than anyone else's!
I suspect that much of the upset is really that both domestic production and the importation of beef is extremely highly regulated in the UK.
ReplyDeleteEveryone there is aware of all of the abattoirs that have been closed due to government-imposed industrialization of beef processing in the name of safety, and of the forced wholesale slaughter of all the cattle in whole regions when evidence of disease appears.
So the government is not afraid to ruin farmers in the name of safety, but somehow can't keep meat on supermarket shelves from being 1/3 meat from the wrong animal...
You get what you pay for...You want cheap meat...you will get the cheap meat. As long as it ain't soylent Green, but given the government, I can see that coming.....
ReplyDeleteEons ago, back in Europe, when there was no meat, I ate horse meat. It has a very unusual taste, but I have often wondered if now I could detect that same taste. Probably not. I am not surprised if the Brits couldn't detect it either. What do the Irish do? Don't they have more horses than the Brits?
ReplyDeleteI have a British friend who ate 10 burgers containing horse meat and got sick.
ReplyDeleteHe went to the A&E (Emergency dept) where he was admitted to the hospital quickly.
They said he was: "In a STABLE" condition."
By the way all the horse meat tainted ground beef came from The republic of Ireland and has been sold through the Tesco supermarket chain.
Years ago, when I had a few horses, I'd go to the local horse auctions to find saddles to repair and resale.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed was the prices the slaughter buyers would pay for the horses that moms and dads told their children were going to good home.
I was told horses were selling at fifty cents a pound on the hoof, which astounded me, since beef was around seventy cents a pound. Further explanation revealed their was an overseas market for horse meat, which was the reason for what I considered a very good price.
A slaughter buyer would pay up to $300 for a 1000 pound horse, buy a half dozen and make the 300 mile round trip to the local processing facility. At $200 profit from each horse, an evening of buying could yield a few hundred dollars of profit.
I'd be offended if someone had sold me something I had been led to believe was 100% ground beef, only to find out that it was not what I was led to believe.
ReplyDeleteIn the US, that's fraud in the execution of the contract.