Why don't all animals get a polite, and decorative description for the meat on their bones?
Asked by
josie (
30934
)
April 30th, 2015
Nobody says cow-meat. They say beef.
Nobody says pig-meat. They say pork.
What if you had to eat horse-meat. Or dog-meat. Or a snake or a scorpion(they both taste like chicken by the way).
What would you call them?
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8 Answers
Domestication and universality.
Mud-bug meat. Crawfish.
Beef comes from beeves.
In English, the animal names (cows, sheep, pigs) come from German, and the names of the food (beef, pork, mutton) come from French. The saxon commoners that were conquered handled the animals; the Norman nobility ate them.
Chicken tastes like snake, not the other way around.
I wish they were called by their animal names. All of them. “We are eating pig’s ass for Easter, how about you?”
Horse steak. Dog steak. The snake I’ve had has been fried – snake fritters, I think they called them. Scorpion would just be “scorpion,” I’d wager.
Chicken is called “chicken.” And lamb is “lamb.” (Though sheep is “mutton;” wonder how that one got split up.)
This is a relevant question for some of us out there, btw. I raise goats, along with many of my friends and neighbors, and it’s difficult to market goat meat in the US (even though the world over, it is the most commonly eaten meat – plus it tastes perfectly great, kind of like lamb crossed with venison). There’s been a recent rebranding attempt in the US to start calling goat meat “chevon,” which is the French for “goat.”
I actually do say “cow” or “pig”, albeit somewhat jokingly.
My wife makes a bacon-wrapped pork roast I refer to as “pig wrapped pig”.
I’m with @anniereborn. I have a friend that makes a lot of pulled pork and when I see it on sale I always call and say, “Hey, they have pig ass on sale for $1.79!” when I find cheap pork butt.
Funny how the cut names lose meaning: flank, butt, ribs, shoulder, etc.
Chicken is awesome. No only is if called chicken, but the parts are undisguised and called out by name.
“None of that pig ass for me, @anniereborn, we’re having turkey breast.”
Not sure it would make a difference.
I see, @wildpotato.
I’ll stick to my usual pronouncement of, “Dead pig meat’s ready!”
I cook but don’t eat dead animal flesh.
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