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Horse meat (or horse beef) is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Tonga and Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to Asia. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existence, wild horses were hunted as a source of protein. It is slightly sweet, tender and low in fat. Because of the role horses have played as companions and as workers, and ensuing concerns about the ethics of the horse slaughter process, it is a taboo food in some cultures, for example the Romani, whose culture contains a rich history of equine husbandry. These historical associations, as well as ritual and religion, led to the development of an aversion to the consumption of horse meat in some cultures. The horse is now given pet status by many in some parts of the Western world, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland, which further solidifies the taboo on eating its meat. ==History== In the Paleolithic, wild horses formed an important source of food. In many parts of Europe, the consumption of horse meat continued throughout the Middle Ages until modern times, despite a papal ban of horse meat in 732. Horse meat was also eaten as part of Germanic pagan religious ceremonies in northern Europe, particularly ceremonies associated with the worship of Odin. Horses developed on the North American Continent and migrated to other parts of the world about 15,000 years ago. The largest fossil beds of horses is in Idaho at the Hagerman Fossil Beds, a national monument. The horses were about the size of a modern-day Arabian horse. The Europeans' horses that came over to the Americas with the Spaniards and followed by the settlers became feral, and were hunted by the indigenous Pehuenche people of what is now Chile and Argentina.〔 (Spanish title: ''El Ganado Exótico Y la Transición Productiva '', ''Variables Geohistóricas en la Evolución del Sistema Económica Pehuenche durante el periodo colonial'').〕 At first, they hunted horses as they did other game, but later they began to raise them for meat and transport. The meat was, and still is, preserved by being sun-dried in the high Andes into a product known as ''charqui''. France dates its taste for horse meat to the Revolution. With the fall of the aristocracy, its auxiliaries had to find new means of subsistence. Just as hairdressers and tailors set themselves up to serve commoners, the horses maintained by aristocracy as a sign of prestige ended up alleviating the hunger of lower classes.〔 During the Napoleonic campaigns, the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's Grand Army, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, advised the starving troops to eat the meat of horses. At the siege of Alexandria, the meat of young Arab horses relieved an epidemic of scurvy. At the battle of Eylau in 1807, Larrey served horse as soup and ''bœuf à la mode''. At Aspern-Essling (1809), cut off from the supply lines, the cavalry used the breastplates of fallen ''cuirassiers'' as cooking pans and gunpowder as seasoning, and thus founded a tradition that carried on until at least the Waterloo campaign.〔Larrey is quoted in French by Dr Béraud, ''(Études Hygiéniques de la chair de cheval comme aliment )'', ''Musée des Familles'' (1841-42).〕〔Larrey mentions in his memoirs how he fed the wounded after the (1809) with bouillon of horse meat seasoned with gunpowder. Parker, Harold T. (1983 reprint) ''Three Napoleonic Battles''. (2nd Ed). Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-0547-X. (Page 83 ) (in Google Books). Quoting Dominique-Jean Larrey, ''Mémoires de chirurgie militaire et campagnes'', III 281, Paris, Smith.〕 Horse meat gained widespread acceptance in French cuisine during the later years of the Second French Empire. The high cost of living in Paris prevented many working-class citizens from buying meat such as pork or beef, so in 1866, the French government legalized the eating of horse meat and the first butcher's shop specializing in horse meat opened in eastern Paris, providing quality meat at lower prices.〔Kari Weil, ("They Eat Horses, Don't They? Hippophagy and Frenchness" ), ''Gastronomica'' Spring 2007, Vol. 7, No. 2, Pages 44-51 Posted online on May 22, 2007. 〕 During the Siege of Paris (1870–1871), horse meat was eaten by anyone who could afford it, partly because of a shortage of fresh meat in the blockaded city, and also because horses were eating grain which was needed by the human populace. Many Parisians gained a taste for horse meat during the siege, and after the war ended, horse meat remained popular. Likewise, in other places and times of siege or starvation, horses are viewed as a food source of last resort. Despite the general Anglophone taboo, horse and donkey meat was eaten in Britain, especially in Yorkshire, until the 1930s,〔''Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa'' by Matthew Fort. 2005, p253. ISBN 0-00-721481-2〕 and in times of postwar food shortage surged in popularity in the United States and was considered for use in hospitals. A 2007 ''Time'' magazine article about horse meat brought in from Canada to the United States characterized the meat as sweet, rich, superlean, oddly soft meat, and closer to beef than venison.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「horse meat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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