Accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, this sentence is also correct when applied to humans, the species that have been domesticated with humans, pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, and even cats and dogs, none of which have escaped the mouths of humans, and the original intention of many animals to domesticate is to eat, at first probably to serve as reserve food in difficult times.
In our country, there are a lot of meat that we often eat, but we are used to eating pork and chicken, and in recent years, Europe and the United States have accused us of eating too much pork to affect the climate, and even some people in China say this about ourselves. However, raising cattle requires more feed, and cattle ruminants also produce large amounts of methane, a stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and Europe and the United States mainly eat beef, so these words should be used on their own.
However, in China, beef and mutton are also very common foods, with the development of the economy, people's food choices are becoming more and more diversified, and beef with more chewy and high-quality protein content is very popular with people; Donkey meat is often eaten in Hebei, Shandong and other places, because there are many donkeys raised locally, and it is also related to the traditional Ejiao production. But why do people eat so little horse meat?
In fact, just talking about eating horse meat, there is really it, but most people can't accept it, human beings have a strong primitive motivation in the face of food, and they dare to eat as much as they can, even insects, not to mention a horse that can grow to hundreds of pounds? However, in terms of taste, many people may not be able to accept the taste of horse meat, some people say that horse meat is more sour, the reason is that the sweat glands of horses are more developed, and adapted to running, horse meat muscle fibers are rougher, and it is said that it is not easy to chew.
However, this is only the inferior reason why horse meat is less eaten, just like fatty bear paw, it is difficult to eat if it is not done well, but there was once a famous dish in our country that was braised bear paw. I believe that horse meat can also be made very delicious, in some areas of western China, there is a tradition of eating horse meat, I remember that there is a movie about the knife (amphibious town knife guest), there is a plot of cutting horses and eating horse meat.
However,Horse meat is eaten in many places where horses are produced。In the Central Plains, East China, South China, North China and other regions, there are fewer people who eat horse meat, and one of the important reasons is that the supply is small and expensive.
Horse is a more delicate animal, although it is domesticated by humans for riding and transporting, but the breeding of horses is more energy-consuming, in ancient times horses are important strategic materials, marching and fighting are indispensable horses, except for a few bad wounded and crippled horses will be eaten, other horses are much more expensive.
In this way, eating horses is a more luxurious thing, because there are fewer horses to eat, and transportation to other places is not enough to pay for their own food, so there will be a tradition of eating horses near the once main horse breeding grounds, and this tradition is difficult to spread, and people elsewhere may not be able to accept the taste of horse meat.
Another important reason is that although horses were also captured and eaten by humans in ancient times, the most important purpose of human domestication was transportation, so yesThe domestication of horses is a light and fast way, and the feed conversion efficiency of horses is relatively low, and the development and maturity cycle is longer, which naturally leads to more expensive horse meat, which is not suitable for being brought to the table as a food.
Other species domesticated by human beings have been modified by humans to produce more meat, high meat production efficiency, ancient pig breeds around the world have a long growth cycle, in the past, China's rural areas raised a lot of local black pigs, a year can be slaughtered, and later China introduced the pig breeds bred in Europe, that is, now many farms raised breeds, three months can be slaughtered, the efficiency of meat production is much higher, ** more suitable, so our people eat pork is the most.
The domestication of donkeys and cattle is also different from that of horses, although they can be used for transportation, but they have their own distinctive characteristics, oxen have great strength but slow speed, suitable for pulling carts and plowing fields, donkeys are not very fast, and their strength is not as big as that of horses, but they are smaller and more flexible. The meat production efficiency of cattle and donkeys is not very high, but because a large number of cattle are needed for farming, the scale of cattle breeding is larger, and cattle can be seen everywhere in agricultural civilization, and donkeys are highly flexible, and later they became the raw materials of Ejiao, and there are many donkeys.
Because cattle are widely raised and scattered, and the grain production in ancient times is relatively low, although the official often prohibits the killing of cattle, but the death of cattle and old age can not be wasted, so there are many people who eat cattle; Donkeys are used for transportation with high flexibility, so there are many donkeys in ancient times, and like cattle, there will be people to eat, but because of the later Ejiao and other industries, donkey meat is mostly concentrated in the Ejiao industrial area.
Modern cattle have also undergone a lot of human modifications, and there are more efficient breeds that produce more meat, and there are cows that are specifically used to produce milk, because there has been a demand for beef since ancient times.
But horses are not good, ancient times are war materials, in order to maintain their health need more fine feed, ordinary people can not afford to raise, some modern thoroughbred horses can be worth tens of millions, not cheaper than sports cars, horse breeding is more concentrated, human beings do not have a long-term tradition of eating horses, so the transformation of horses has not gone in this direction.