Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1886 — Horseflesh. [ARTICLE]

Horseflesh.

It will probably be news to many Americans who have lived in Paris that they may have unknowingly often eaten horseflesh at some of the minor restaurants. In 1883 over 13,000 horses, mules, and donkeys were slaughtered for food there, and sold for about half the price of beef. This accounts for the modest prices prevai ing in cheap bouillons. It is claimed that the custom tends to the improvements of the horse. One point may certainly be granted, that worn-out jade is now often got in condition for the meat market and is put to death in a much less cruel fashion than formerly. In former years the government made many eh, forts to stop the sale of horseflesh, and immense quantities of it were seized at different towns, but it is now viewed as having become a necessity. In any case, there are eighty duly licensed horse-butchers in Paris at the present moment. The first efforts to put a stop to the practice of eating horseflesh can be traced as far back as 1739. During the revolution, however, almost the whole of Paris lived on horseflesh, while during the last Franco-Prussian war horseflesh was considered a delicacy. The writer remembers having eaten once at the Quartier Latin a students’ dinner entirely composed of horseflesh. The students tried it as an experiment, which, thanks to good seasoning and good appetite, proved a great success. It is no exaggeration to say that in almost all the cheaper restaurants horseflesh enters constantly into the preparation of soups and stews, and that in many of them roast beet is nothing but roast horse. Of course you cannot easily find out what you are eating in the potages and ragouts. But the horse roast beef always betrays itself as horseflesh when roasted, shows no fibre, and looks more like liver than like-beef, and often has those little round holes which everybody knows who has ever eaten coarsely baked and lough beef liver.— New York Sun.