I read Cecil’s answer about using horses to manufacture glue, but what about using them in gelatin?
I have a vegatarian friend who checks the ingredients of every package of candy before he eats it to make sure there’s no gelatin in it. He says it’s because they use horses, but I’m not so sure.
Anyone know anything about this?
It was not one of Cecil’s columns, but a Staff Report. Are horses really made into glue?
Gelatin is made collagen found in bones. As such, it’s probably not considered a vegetarian food. I’m pretty sure most gelatin is made from cattle and hogs, not horses.
There is also an interesting debate about whether gelatin made from non-kosher animals is itself kosher.
Can you explain the kashrut status of gelatin?
Dry bones and Jello
Cecil Adams did in fact address this exact question: Is it true gelatin is made from decaying animal hides?
Horsemeat a delicacy? Well, yes, that’s true where I live
(Tokyo) but not from worn-out workhorses! The source of
“basashimi” isn’t even the same species so far as I know.
They certainly don’t look the same. The horses raised
for meat in Japan are very small with longer hair and
short noses. I’ve been told they also lack discernable
intelligence but I have not actually conducted IQ tests
myself. On television they seem completely oblivious.
The tender, delicate meat is usually sliced into thin
strips then served marinated but uncooked. I think the
market here would totally vanish if people thought the
meat came from anything resembling Mr. Ed.
Well, no wonder my searches failed: I was spelling wrong.
It is “basashi” and that gets a hundred hits. Hmm, this is
not looking good. Most of the results point to restaurants
and one that doesn’t features a picture of a horse ranch in
Canada! Ulp. That one seems to ramble on about cold
winters, ancient history, and the decadence of French
ladies who eat too much horsemeat. Hmm, maybe I’d
better keep looking. . .
From the link Dry bones and Jello:
Huh! I’d heard Jewish men joke that when their wives/mothers cooked pork, it was considered Kosher, since even the dog wouldn’t eat it or “even God couldn’t tell it used to be pork”. I had no idea they were actually following Torah!
Reference the horse meat in Tokyo
Yes Jam, it is “basashi”, and it is a bit of an acquired taste.
I lived in the South of Japan for 2 years in Kumamoto where one of the regional delicacies is (raw) horsemeat. It is thin, but it is not marinated - it is completely raw and looks “odd” because of the fat that is marbled through the grain. They serve it with fresh grated ginger and soy sauce and it is so fine it really melts in the mouth. It was only towards the end of my stay that I actually wanted to eat it, and never without a flask or two or warm sake on the side, and a flask or two already on the inside 
Anyway, the story of why they love it so much in Kumamoto is interesting. The horses, similar to the cattle used for Kobe beef, are reared on holy ground (Shinto, I think). There is a festival once a year, which I can’t remember very well but I think it’s late summer / early Autumn (damn hot anyway) that starts at the crack of dawn. A horse is force-fed sake until it is extremely drunk, then it is dragged around the town in front of the local shrine that is carried head high, onto which everyone throws money. The participants in the festival keep going until dusk (must be about 14 hours), banging on the drums and shouting and feeding the horse more sake. Bystanders bring their portable BBQ’s and cool boxes and cook food on the pavements (not too close to the procession cause that horse is all over the place, believe me) and drink beer.
Now here’s where things get really interesting. Up until very recently (i.e. last 10 years), the celebration culminated in the horse being slaughtered and everyone eating it :eek:. That doesn’t happen anymore (at least it didn’t up to 1995).
I’m sure there is someone out there that can fill in my patchy memory. I tried to find out more, but my browser / pc don’t support Kanji or either kana. Let’s be honest, my Japanese has become so bad that I wouldn’t be able to read it properly anyway.
BTW, another regional speciality is salted, roasted horsemeat that is served just like yakitori, and it is divine. I don’t think you get that anywhere else.
Lion Killer
Hey, Lion Killer, you should speak up more often! 
Only 2 posts since last May? Either you’re the strong silent type, or you’re one busy dude. Or have you just been sitting there waiting patiently for somebody to bring up Japanese horsemeat? “Well, FINALLY, it’s about TIME…”
Thanks for saving me about 15 minutes of driving around on Google looking for “Japanese horse meat”, also for convincing me that Jam wasn’t pulling my leg. I mean, come on, I know the Japanese are depraved inscrutable whale-killing Orientals, but raw horse meat? Surely even depraved inscrutable whale-killing Orientals would balk at eating Misty of Chincoteague.
Thanks for the encouragement Duck Duck Goose! 
It’s just that are so many good answers here, I just don’t want to appear dumb! (shy - :o)
I looked around for some Japanese type quotes, but the two most appropriate ones were from the US!
and the other;
Lion Killer
Horse gelatin is visible in any large Chinese deli, where it is shelved next to the pigs feet. It’s useful as a form of aspic in many dishes and glazes.
I worked for a time in a laboratory which was situated in a gelatine production plant.
I can only suggest that whomever Cecil quoted in his article as saying ‘the smell isn’t bad’ had never been on-site, or was in the PR department (or both). Maybe anosmia?
Sheesh, when I came home each night my husband would comment vocally if I’d done a site tour that day, and he has never had a sensitive sense of smell.
With regards to halal/kosher, the product from that factory was rated as both. It used only cowskin - no bones, no hooves, no skins or body parts from other animals, just cow skins, and the factory was periodically audited by authorities of both dietary persuasions, 'though never on the same day! (Should that be ‘the factory was periodically vetted’?)
A popular dish in Jamaica is “cow foot” – the insides of the hoof cut into gelatinous cubes and served with gravy. I ate it when I had to there but… yech.