Why horse meat is useful: composition of meat, nutritional properties, benefits and harms

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The issue of nutrition in Christianity cannot be called the most important, but still the consumption of certain foods often causes controversy and indignation; This applies in particular to meat, especially horse meat. Whether Orthodox Christians can eat horse meat will be discussed later in the article.

There is an opinion that any meat dishes bring harm to an Orthodox person, since he essentially eats the flesh and blood of the same living creature. As for horse meat, the issue here is even more controversial, because this animal is closest to humans and, as a rule, is rarely considered as an object of food. And still…

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Meat food in Christianity

“Food should strengthen the body,
not cause illness”

Saint Basil the Great

It is undeniable that for a baby the mother’s voice is more important than even the most sonorous voice of a beautiful rattle. So we, in search of answers to our questions, bypassing shallow half-truths, will lean with our infant hearts to the most dear and close to us parental voice of God.

The Triune Lord established the Church on earth and, having sanctified Her with his personal presence, preserves and guides Her with His boundless love.

Orthodoxy is a mountain path ascending over an abyss to Heavenly Jerusalem. You can follow this path only with a firm step, on two legs - with two commandments: love for God and love for your neighbor. The steps from which these feet start are the Holy Tradition and the Holy Scripture, where a lot of attention is paid to what we eat.

When we talk about meat, it can mean the following:

• meat is the muscle mass of a killed animal used for food;
• meat is also the name given to the dish itself, prepared from such muscle mass;
• meat also includes the muscle part of fish;
• muscle tissue itself can be called meat;
• and it may also be the pulp of the fruit surrounding the seed.

Using horse meat in cooking: step-by-step recipes with photos

Cooking horse meat is a long and labor-intensive process, but the result usually fully justifies all the costs. We bring to your attention several classic folk recipes.

Shuzhuk in Kazakh, how to cook horse meat sausage

Ingredients: horse meat – 1 kg, horse fat – 500 g, intestines – 350 g, garlic – 7 teeth, salt – 2 tbsp. l., black pepper - 1.5 tbsp. l.

Preparation procedure:

1. Turn out and rinse the intestines thoroughly. Then add salt and set aside.
2. Cut the fat and meat into cubes, place in a deep bowl and mix.
3. Add salt and pepper to the meat, squeeze out the garlic, mix and leave for half an hour.
4. Turn the intestine outward and secure one edge with a toothpick, then fill it tightly with minced meat, expelling the air, and secure the second edge with the same toothpick, forming a ring of sausage.
5. Carefully cut off the film from the intestines and put the sausage in the refrigerator for a day so that the minced meat is well marinated.
6. Place the shuzhuk in a pan of cold water and after boiling, remove the foam and make several punctures.
7. Salt the water and cook the sausage over low heat for one and a half to two hours.
8. The cooled, ready-made shuzhuk can be cut and served.

Horse meat shurpa

Ingredients: horse meat (ribs) – 1 kg, onions – 2-3 pcs., tomatoes – 3 pcs., carrots – 3 pcs., potatoes (medium size) – 5 pcs., bell pepper – 2 pcs., pepper hot – 1 pc., garlic – 3 teeth, cumin, ground black pepper, salt, herbs.

Preparation procedure:

• Wash and cut the meat into large pieces - approximately 50-70 g.
• Peel, wash and chop the vegetables. Potatoes, depending on size, are cut into halves or quarters. Carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes - in large pieces. Onion - in half rings.
• Place the meat in a saucepan with cold water and place over high heat. After boiling, remove the foam and simmer until half cooked over low heat for about 1 hour.
• Add vegetables to the meat: carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions. Then add spices, garlic cloves and whole hot peppers.
• Place the potatoes on top and boil everything together under the lid for another 40 minutes.
• Let the finished shurpa brew for another 10 minutes, then sprinkle with chopped herbs and serve.

^Is it a sin to kill animals for food?

In order to answer this question, it is necessary to turn to the Holy Scriptures, above which the Holy Church never exalts itself.

In the book of Genesis (Genesis 1:29) it is written that the Lord gives us “every herb bearing seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed,” and says that for us “this will be for food." Here, for the first people, it is clearly stated that only plant foods are intended for humans.

However, after the global flood, when eight people left the ark on bare ground, there is no doubt that such barren soil could not feed them for a long time. Then the Lord allowed them to eat meat. That is, the Almighty Himself, the Creator of the entire universe, blesses the eating of meat food according to the prevailing circumstances. But even here He does not say: “I give you permission for a while.” He simply blessed.

The Lord is Love and everything He does is good care for all living things in our earthly life and, importantly, beyond it. Consequently, neither the killing of all people on the planet during the flood, nor the death of animals by God’s blessing does not contradict His good providence for all of us, no matter how terribly it may impress us.

“The one who thinks is wrong is

that fasting only means abstaining from food.

True fasting is removal from evil..."

St. Basil the Great.

Recommendations

When choosing horse meat, weigh the potential harms and benefits of the food, especially if this is your first time encountering it. Fresh meat resembles beef and has a dark red color, but is dense and has a pronounced elasticity. When pressed, it does not wrinkle and quickly acquires its primary shape.

The maximum amount of horse meat consumption per day for women is no more than 200 g, for men - within 400 g. This meat should be present on the table no more than 3 times a week.

In order to cook up a tasty dish that will only benefit the body, you must follow the following canons for processing horse meat:

• The shoulder, back and thigh areas of the carcass are best suited for creating dishes.
• For tenderness, cook the meat for at least 2-3 hours.
• Soak fresh meat first in water and then soak in the marinade.
• To reduce the specific smell, season the carcass with onions, garlic, and stuff with prunes during cooking.
• Horse meat is best eaten boiled, stewed with vegetables or baked in the oven. The best side dishes for it are rice and potatoes.

^ Is the Lord blessed any meat for consumption?

There is one important reservation that the Lord made when blessing meat foods. He divided all animals into clean and unclean (Old Testament).

• A CLEAN animal has only two characteristics - it must be:

1. artiodactyls and
2. ruminant

• UNCLEAN foods are animals that lack at least one of these characteristics. This means that such meat is not suitable for consumption.

Also unclean food includes meat sacrificed to idols, that is, the carcass left over from an animal after it was sacrificed to an idol.

Reader question: “Help resolve the dispute within our family! Our aunt says that an Orthodox person should have many prohibitions regarding food, and these prohibitions should not be limited only to fasting. She says that an Orthodox person should cook meat food only on holidays, but we cannot eat food from other nations, Uzbek, Japanese, Korean, Tatar. And my mother tells her that after praying, you can eat any food. Who is right?!”

What’s interesting about this dispute is that, under certain conditions, both women can be right. It all depends on where the spiritual gaze of each of them is directed. “Do not strive for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life,” says the Apostle John. And if these women look at that food in this way, as reinforcement of strength for mastering spiritual food, then this is simply a conversation between two angels calling each other to embark on the joy of their path.

For the first, apparently, abstinence is necessary for fear of losing the most precious feeling of God that was once given to her. Trying to save it, she clumsily, perhaps worries about all her loved ones who, in her opinion, do not protect this feeling.

And for the second, it is quite possible that at the spiritual height of her heart, food is needed only in order to contemplate at least one more day the illuminated face of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, once upon a time, the Lord Himself, out of hungry human necessity, blessed the apostle to eat unclean food during his prayer work (Acts 10:9-15).

For the peace of their conscience, the first type of people needs to decide what, according to the Old Testament laws, a Christian is allowed to consume and what not. This is also useful for people who accidentally stray from the God-saved path to worship their belly or the food itself, about which, as the Apostle Paul says, “it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” (1 Cor 10:7), or rather , Lopukhin corrects “to dance,” that is, to commit fornication.

"Control over the belly,

until your womb gets the better of you.”

St. Basil the Great.

So “... food of other peoples .. we are not allowed”?!

In continuation of the question from our reader, let's briefly define the differences in the dietary restrictions of an Orthodox person and representatives of other religions, close and not close to us in relation to the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament. To do this, it is necessary to briefly mention our general prohibitive concepts in the field of nutrition.

Useful properties of horse meat

Among all types of meat, horse meat contains the most complete protein from 20-25%, as well as water from 70-74%, fat from 2.5-5% and ash from 1%. Horse meat contains potassium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, copper, magnesium, amino acids, thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide, group vitamins.

Many nomadic peoples have long realized that horse meat is very useful as camp food - when consumed cold, it exhibits warming properties. That is why in many Asian countries horse meat is sold almost everywhere.

The nutritional value of horse meat is very high. Unlike the meat of other animals, horse meat has little cholesterol, which determines its dietary value (the meat has an anti-sclerotic effect).

Fat in herd horses is mainly deposited on the abdominal part and on the ribs, so the rib part of the carcass has the highest calorie content - up to 4949 kcal. As the horse ages, the water content in the meat decreases and the amount of fat increases.

Fermented milk products from horses - kumis, chigyan - contain a whole bunch of components important for the body: lactic acid, acetic acid, antibiotics. These compounds improved digestion and prevented gastrointestinal diseases. Fermented milk products also compensated for the deficiency of a vitamin important for human metabolism - ascorbic acid.

Horsemeat contains more organic acids than beef, which have the property of activating metabolism, improving the functioning of the digestive tract, and improving the composition of intestinal microflora.

1st place in molybdenum content, among the record holders for the presence of calcium

Dangerous properties of horse meat

Excessive consumption of horse meat can provoke the development of diseases of the cardiovascular, skeletal and digestive systems due to the increased fat content.
Production of Kazylyk horse sausage.

Tatyana Eliseeva chief editor of the Food+ project

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^ Islamic food - conditionally permitted

“Halal” is the concept of what is permissible and permissible in Islam. The opposite concept is “haram”. Typically, these words denote acceptable and unacceptable food.

The following are considered haram by Muslims:

• pork and its derivatives,
• Consumption of meat with unbleeded blood and carrion is prohibited,
• as well as meat with blood released, but cooked without pronouncing the name of Allah.

*Muslims are allowed to eat meat that

was prepared only by the “People of the Book.”

These include Christians, Jews and Muslims themselves.

Read more: Can Orthodox Christians eat halal food?

Compound

So what is horse meat good for? According to the USDA Nutrient Database, 100 g of this meat contains:

• 0.99 g ash;
• 63.72 g water;
• 4.6 g fat;
• 21.39 g protein.

Do you know if horse meat is healthy? It contains the following vitamins:

• 0.13 mg thiamine (vitamin B1);
• 0.1 mg riboflavin (vitamin B2);
• 0.38 mg pyridoxine (vitamin B6);
• 4.6 mg niacin (vitamin PP or B3);
• 1 mg ascorbic acid (vitamin C);
• 3 mcg cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12).

The beneficial properties of horse meat are also determined by the following macroelements:

• 221 mg phosphorus;
• 24 mg magnesium;
• 360 mg potassium;
• 53 mg sodium;
• 6 mg calcium.

Horse meat also contains microelements:

• 10.1 mcg selenium;
• 3.82 mg iron;
• 2.9 mg zinc;
• 144 mcg copper;
• 19 mcg manganese.

^ Blood cannot be eaten, but how can it cleanse the soul?

The indications that “this blood cleanses the soul” speaks of sprinkling God’s altar as a deposit for the sin committed (details in the book of Leviticus).

This bloody act, with a superficial look at the history of Holy Scripture, seems senseless and cruel. However, everything remains difficult to explain until the Lord Jesus Christ appears. The Savior Himself became a “calf” for the altar and sprinkled His Blood on the Altar-Cross in order to once and for all cleanse our souls from the abyss of alienation from God. This divine instruction is a prototype of the Great future Sacrifice for our sins. “Christ <..> with His blood entered once into the sanctuary and obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:11,12), says the Apostle Paul in a letter to the Jews.

^ Why are there food bans?

The Apostolic Canons contain special instructions on the attitude of Christians to the Old and New Testaments. It says: “The books that should be read are the Old and New Testaments.” Therefore, the Orthodox Church anathematized, that is, excommunicated from Herself, all those who doubted the holiness and inspiration of the books of the Old and New Testaments.

Saint Ambrose of Milan called both Testaments “cups of wisdom” in our hands, because, he said, from “both you drink Christ.”

God's contract with people

The word "covenant" means agreement. The “Old Testament” means an agreement with the ancient righteous patriarchs, that is, the fathers and representatives of the peoples of the earth - Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They can be imagined as precious seeds that fell into the hand of a sower during a period of worldwide drought. The Lord’s goal is to protect the life in these seeds from disease and death, that is, to preserve the purity of faith and the race in which Christ, the Savior of the world, should be born. Therefore He makes strict demands on faith, devotion and obedience. In return, He gives His blessing and promises to grant salvation to the people of God.

The Almighty's care for His people consisted in His commandments, some of which were the commandments to be attentive to food. However, it is necessary to understand that now that Christ has already been born, lived among us, was crucified, resurrected and sits at the right hand of God the Father, this Old Testament agreement, strict for obvious reasons, has been carried out. And now the time of the New Testament is stretching out for us, an agreement between all people without distinctions or distinctions, an agreement of “repentance-forgiveness”, the main criterion of which is our personal conscience.

We also recommend: Why are meat products prohibited during Lent?

Horse fat

Many people ask whether horse meat is healthy. Yes, very useful. It is known that it contains a minimum of fat, which differs significantly from both pork and beef. It is identical in composition to vegetable oils, and its beneficial qualities are predetermined by its pronounced choleretic effect and low cholesterol content. It is thanks to the first property that horse meat is best eaten by those who suffer from biliary dyskinesia and liver ailments.

The unique qualities of horse fat help a person recover faster from jaundice. And the fat itself is often used by cosmetic companies to create beauty-preserving products. In addition, it is used for burns and frostbite.