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The look and texture of tripe really creeps me out though...it doesn't taste like that much either.
In total agreement - I don't even like the smell of it cooking.
It was popular though and in recent years has become popular in some restaurants, it's also popular in France and Italy, where they also eat black (blood) pudding, pigs trotters and have no problem eating horses. Then again this could be part of their religious history and the fact it was seen as a mortal sin to waste any part of the animal, and this was especially the case in terms of Catholics.
If you are a hunter in the US or an outdoorsman, you can have an astounding variety of meats to sample, and not just organ meat.
Just as a quick example, snake, (rattlesnake is particularly good), turtle, (snapping turtle is a delicacy to some), alligator, (I think it tastes too fishy), squirrel, Possum,(very greasy) raccoon, porcupine, several canids including fox and coyote (stringy and not a great flavor), bobcat and cougar,(very good) deer, moose, elk, black and grizzly bear, (both very good). Cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits or snowshoe hare, bighorn sheep and mountain goat, pronghorn antelope, and my favorite, American Buffalo.
In the arctic you have specialty meats like caribou, musk ox, and some meats like walrus, seal that only the Eskimos or Indians can legally hunt, and some whales, but sometimes you can get a sample from one of them.
Then the birds, wild geese and ducks, (multiple varieties), wild turkey, several crane species are good as well.
All seafood and freshwater fish including crawdads and some freshwater mussels.
Beef, pork, mutton and chicken/turkey are easy to raise in large production to feed the masses, and are cheap in the US, relatively, so are the default, but that doesn't mean they are the only options.
Only thing is, most wild game isn't commercially available, you have to go get it yourself, and the region you live in will determine what is available to some extent unless you are willing to invest several thousand dollars to hunt in another state.
The US and Canada have a lot of the same opportunities for a lot of different game animals, and many people eat a wide variety of meats.
I don't think it is completely accurate to say that the US and Canada at least are limited in their meat diet.
People in English-speaking countries often talk about how exotic other cultures' diets are, such as French eating snails and frogs or Chinese eating snake or Koreans and Japanese eating odd sea creatures or Peruvians eating guinea pigs.
I know there are obviously hunters and gourmets who like game meat in Anglo countries and you have exemplars like in the USA, the Cajun style of hunting gator and other wild game meat, or seal meat or kangaroo meat in Australia and Canada, but in general it seems Anglo countries eat a lot fewer animals than Asian, African, Latin American or even some European countries.
Some of this might have to do with industrialization, but then again, Japan is very wealthy and industrialized and yet there is a reputation of "weird" (from an Anglo perspective) food animals caught there.
You've not been to the American south where Opossum, Rattlesnake, Alligator and several other items may be served up. Not to mention "Chidlins". More correctly spelled, Chitterlings but never said like that.
I guess some people here think of animals like deer and horses as cute animals that you don't eat, kind of like dogs.
We eat venison in the UK, just not horses, domestic animals, insects and reptiles. We eat most things from the sea with the exception of larger sea mammals such as dolphin and whales. We even eat squid (calamari).
Then again the UK doesn't really have many large insects and we have few reptiles, so neither are going to be traditionally in our diet. The French eat Frogs, although I think it's more of a luxury than a regular meal, and there are French restaurants in the UK, although few Brits resort to eating Frogs/Amphibians on a regular basis.
I guess some people here think of animals like deer and horses as cute animals that you don't eat, kind of like dogs.
It made the news here when Britons were shocked at Lidl for selling reindeer meat. How can anyone eat poor Rudolph! Of course, reindeer is considered a delicacy here, and it truly tastes extremely good.
On the other hand, for example in France you can find rabbit in restaurants and some people eat it during holidays, while here the rabbit has for so long seen solely as a pet and most people refuse to eat rabbit meat.
Horse, which also is quite the taboo in many cultures, tastes often better than beef if it's of high quality, but the market is minimal for it and you can find it only from independent small butchers.
If you are a hunter in the US or an outdoorsman, you can have an astounding variety of meats to sample, and not just organ meat.
Just as a quick example, snake, (rattlesnake is particularly good), turtle, (snapping turtle is a delicacy to some), alligator, (I think it tastes too fishy), squirrel, Possum,(very greasy) raccoon, porcupine, several canids including fox and coyote (stringy and not a great flavor), bobcat and cougar,(very good) deer, moose, elk, black and grizzly bear, (both very good). Cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits or snowshoe hare, bighorn sheep and mountain goat, pronghorn antelope, and my favorite, American Buffalo.
In the arctic you have specialty meats like caribou, musk ox, and some meats like walrus, seal that only the Eskimos or Indians can legally hunt, and some whales, but sometimes you can get a sample from one of them.
Then the birds, wild geese and ducks, (multiple varieties), wild turkey, several crane species are good as well.
All seafood and freshwater fish including crawdads and some freshwater mussels.
Beef, pork, mutton and chicken/turkey are easy to raise in large production to feed the masses, and are cheap in the US, relatively, so are the default, but that doesn't mean they are the only options.
Only thing is, most wild game isn't commercially available, you have to go get it yourself, and the region you live in will determine what is available to some extent unless you are willing to invest several thousand dollars to hunt in another state.
The US and Canada have a lot of the same opportunities for a lot of different game animals, and many people eat a wide variety of meats.
I don't think it is completely accurate to say that the US and Canada at least are limited in their meat diet.
What, aren't a lot of those endangered/protected? Grizzly bear? Seriously? Who even eats that?
We eat venison in the UK, just not horses, domestic animals, insects and reptiles. We eat most things from the sea with the exception of larger sea mammals such as dolphin and whales. We even eat squid (calamari).
Then again the UK doesn't really have many large insects and we have few reptiles, so neither are going to be traditionally in our diet. The French eat Frogs, although I think it's more of a luxury than a regular meal, and there are French restaurants in the UK, although few Brits resort to eating Frogs/Amphibians on a regular basis.
Yeah, they sell venison - but I know people who wouldn't want to eat deer because they're cute frolicking animals like Bambi.
Squid is pretty disgusting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
It made the news here when Britons were shocked at Lidl for selling reindeer meat. How can anyone eat poor Rudolph! Of course, reindeer is considered a delicacy here, and it truly tastes extremely good.
On the other hand, for example in France you can find rabbit in restaurants and some people eat it during holidays, while here the rabbit has for so long seen solely as a pet and most people refuse to eat rabbit meat.
Horse, which also is quite the taboo in many cultures, tastes often better than beef if it's of high quality, but the market is minimal for it and you can find it only from independent small butchers.
Rabbit is eaten by some people here, usually in rural areas where people hunt, but I think most would be put off eating such a cute, fluffy animal.
Tripe was also popular in parts of Northern England, especially among mill workers, as it was refreshing to have after working in the cotton mills of Lancashire.
The tripe was quite refreshing after a day breathing in cotton dust in the Lancashire Mills. In terms of meat it was expensive, and even after WW2 Britain was still rationing meat for many yeas. Lancashire had a lot of Tripe Shops at one time, and it had a large Catholic population being directly across from Ireland, and as I have pointed out many religions such as the Catholic one saw waste as sinful and this was coupled with poverty. Therefore every conceivable bit of the animal was used, the blood made in to black pudding, even the bones were boiled down, whilst the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brains etc were all used in recipes.
Today it has become quite fashionable for some Northern Restaurants to put the likes of Lambs Brains, Tripe and testicals back on the menu.
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