Horse Of A Different Color
In a discussion of Mad Men at the A.V. Club, we get this:
...we don’t even slaughter horses for export anymore—it’s still quite common in countries like Japan and Belgium. It’s never, however, been a staple of English-speaking countries, which helps explain why there’s not a euphemistic word for horse meat in English along the lines of “pork” or “beef.”
I don't know if I'd call these euphimisms, exactly. The roots of separate words for the animal and its meat comes from the Norman Invasion. The French ruler of the manor would be using different words from the servants, thus cow meat would become beef. I suppose if there were a tradition of eating horse meat, we'd call it cheval.
(We do have a word for deer meat, though we don't regularly eat it any more. Is there a word for chicken meat other than chicken?)
posted by LAGuy @ 12:26 AM
5 Comments:
Maybe "Coq" didn't translate well to the English
We have "poultry" for chickens and turkeys and ducks... or does it include all birds? I'm not sure.
I sometimes hear the word "poultry" used to refer to living animals; is that actually a proper usage?
And then there's mutton, which I find very mysterious. Veal is baby beef, and we eat both. Lamb is baby mutton, and in the U.K. they eat both, but here in America I have never ever seen mutton for sale.
Oh farm animal names
Poultry refers to the farm animal and meat collectively but never to the individual. We don't eat fried poultry but we do buy it in the poultry department. - by the way what is a single cattle - A head of beef? a cow (even if male?), a steer? (doesn't that involve castration)? I guess bull and cow cover it but that sounds too generic.
Whats the difference between hogs and pigs? Was once a euphemism for the other Boar isn't much better but boar meat sounds tastier than pork.
Is coq au vin made with the roster- I thought the males were decidedly not tasty
Great comment kid. Now don't get coqqy.
Maybe chicken terminology has fallen out of use. My Grandma refers to fryers and broilers but I never hear anyone else make those distinctions. Although there is that great line in "Save The Bones For Henry Jones" -- "he loves a pullet!"
There's a steakhouse in Manhattan famous for their "mutton chop." The NYTimes did a bit of an expose, discovering that it's technically lamb, but just older lamb than what you're normally served in a restaurant.
Hogs are male pigs; females are sows.
Oddly enough, "wild boar" is the name of the animal. That's why it can be served on menus even in states that prohibit restaurants serving wild game.
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