"I just slaughtered this horse last Tuesday...".
Posted on 10/19/2010 10:35:20 AM PDT by nickcarraway
This is a first, and it's not something to be proud of, but I have to be honest: I didn't actually ingest this week's "I'm Eating What?!?" products.
Yes, the whole aim of this column is to chomp down on unusual things, swallow, research and report. But when something smells so gawd-awful that it makes me want to wretch -- no gig is worth that. (My friend and fellow taster, a particularly vociferous bacon-lover, even pulled the Jew card as an excuse for not trying the products, claiming they weren't kosher. Girl, puuuuhhhlleeease.)
However, we are pleased to report that one unsuspecting gentleman subjected himself to a big slug of what can only be described as one of the most foul-smelling, unappetizing-looking beverages we've ever come across: a fermented drink made with mare milk.
But first, a recap of the conversation with the cashier at a local Russian food market where we found these two bottles -- one with a camel head drawn on the label, the other with a horse head -- in a cooler.
"Excuse me, does this mean that these are made with horse and camel milk?" "No. It's milk." "Meaning, cow milk?" "No. Milk from horse. Milk from camel."
We tried to psyche ourselves up with research -- perhaps the liquid emitted from these mammals' teats would, perhaps, be more enjoyable and nutritious than cows' milk! Here's what we found:
Camel milk is reported to have been a staple food of desert nomad tribes. Though it is richer in fat than cow's milk, it contains more protein and triple the amount of vitamin C. It is also said to have medicinal properties and is even considered an aphrodisiac in Ethiopia.
Horse milk, which dates back as a beverage about 5,500 years ago to the Botai Culture of Kazakhstan and was popular in Germany during the First World War, seems a bit more popular in Europe than in the States. It is low in fat and more digestible than cow's milk and fans claim it can do magical things like helping dermatitis and eczema sufferers who either drink it or rub it into their skin. Supposedly even Cleopatra bathed in ass's milk to keep her skin young and beautiful.
Had we read the label first, we would have seen the ingredients: dried milk, cultured milk ferment, pure water and salt. And when we opened the bottle, there was no denying that some serious culturing and fermenting had gone down. To say these each smelled like a rancid dairy would be a gross understatement. And we do mean gross. We even checked the expiration date and found that it was still considered good for another two weeks.
Our unsuspecting male friend, probably attempting to pull off a cooler-than-thou posture, poured some into a glass, quickly confirmed that it looked like cow's milk, and threw it back. Then he promptly ran toward the sink and spat white liquid everywhere.
just make sure you get your camle milk from a consenting, FEMALE camle!
You haven’t lived until you’ve drunk Kumis!
MMMMMM, camel milk! My favorite!
Ugh.
On a flight to Finland, we were served cold cuts of reinder meat. I couldn’t eat it.
Poor Rudolph.
Can you say MMM MMMM MMMMM Chicken Nuggets. Thats right its mechanically seperated chicken. They squish the chickens between plates that even break down the bones and extract marrow. Also includes the eyes and guts, everything bones and connective tissue.
I regularly ate reindeer sausage while living in Alaska. Reindeer is domesticated caribou and a hunted by many there.
Reindeer sausage was sold in every main grocery store in and near Anchorage. We visited a reindeer farm in Palmer with many different guest.
They hunt a domesticated animal? What, they walk up to the tiny pen it’s kept in and shoot it?
Another reason to go veg: Carrots don’t have livers nor do they produce milk.
No. Wild Caribou are hunted.
Caribou are also (separately) raised on farms. When raised on the farm the same animal is called a reindeer.
Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) live in the arctic tundra, mountain tundra, and northern forests of North America, Russia, and Scandinavia. The world population is about 5 million. Caribou in Alaska are distributed in 32 herds (or populations). A herd uses a calving area that is separate from the calving areas of other herds, but different herds may mix together on winter ranges.
In Europe, caribou are called reindeer, but in Alaska and Canada only the domestic forms are called reindeer. All caribou and reindeer throughout the world are considered to be the same species, but there are 7 subspecies: barrenground (Rangifer tarandus granti), Svalbard (R.t platyrhynchus), European (R.t. tarandus), Finnish forest reindeer (R.t. fennicus), Greenland (R.t. groenlandicus), woodland (R.t. caribou) and Peary (R.t. pearyi). Alaska has only the barren-ground subspecies, but in Canada the barren-ground, woodland, and Peary subspecies are found.
http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/biggame/caribou.php
FDA approved
1.EMU sold as chicken
2.YAK sold as beef
3.
Another reason to go veg: Carrots don’t have livers nor do they produce milk.
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