Introduction: The ancients ate meat to pay attention to "donkey meat fragrant horse meat smelly, starvation do not eat mule meat", mule meat is difficult to eat?
Today, living standards have improved and dietary options are more diverse. As long as you want to eat food, you can usually eat it in a restaurant. Take meat, the variety of meat is now very rich, not only the common chicken, duck and fish meat, but also the price of more expensive beef and mutton, etc., and the economic conditions are better, you can also choose a variety of seafood to eat.
Although pork has always been the most frequently eaten meat in China, after the sharp rise in pig prices last year, more people chose to eat chicken and duck meat, or beef and mutton. Because they believe that the price of pork is now inflated, instead of buying pork for 30 yuan a pound, it is better to buy meat such as cattle and sheep with a higher price. However, in the folk about eating meat, the ancients are very particular, which is also summarized into a classic saying: "mule meat fragrant horse meat smells, starvation do not eat mule meat." What is the rationale for this? Why not eat mule meat?
Let's first look at the first half of the sentence "Donkey meat fragrant horse meat stinks". Regarding donkey meat, the folk evaluation has always been quite high, I believe many people have heard of the "heavenly dragon meat underground donkey meat" this agricultural proverb, donkey meat and dragon meat are compared, which shows its deliciousness. There are too many words of praise for donkey meat, and in many places there are also donkey meat as a specialty food, which is loved by people everywhere, like donkey meat fire, which is very famous at home and abroad. The author has also eaten donkey meat several times, but to be fair, it is indeed more delicious than most meats, and the content of unsaturated fatty acids in donkey meat, especially the content of linoleic acid and linolenic acid with high biological value, is much higher than that of pork and beef. So about donkey meat, the author will not introduce it here.
Let's take a look at "horse meat stinks", to be honest, horse meat is not smelly, but more accurately, it should be that horse meat is very chai, and the taste is very general. We know that in ancient times, horses were used for marching and fighting, and ordinary people could not afford to raise horses, and only high-ranking officials and nobles could afford to buy horses. Horses are very good at running, and endurance is very good, can adapt to long-distance transportation, the reason is that the horse's muscles are very developed, basically no fat, so horse meat is very woody to eat. In addition, at that time, the people could not raise horses at will, let alone slaughter horses at will, so basically few people ate horse meat, saying that horse meat smelled, somewhat false rumors.
Finally, let's take a look at why "starvation does not eat mule meat". The mule is actually a new species, an animal born from a hybrid of a horse and a donkey. It is also for this reason that mules inherit the advantages of donkeys and horses. Mules are larger than donkeys, but smaller than horses. However, it has sufficient endurance and is easier to tame. And there is basically no disease, the life expectancy is still very long, generally can live for decades, so at that time many farmers would raise mules, use it as a means of transport, or help do some farm work.
The ancients mentioned starvation and did not eat mule meat, there are the following reasons. The first mule was infertile, and the ancients did not understand the reason for it, fearing that eating mule meat would also be affected and unable to have children.
The second is that the lifespan of the mule is very long, because its own value is very high, and it is several decades to raise it. Such animals have been raised for so many years, and the meat is not delicious at all, much more difficult to eat than horse meat.
The third reason is that I can't bear to eat mules. Ordinary people raise mules for decades, and they have long been a member of the family and have feelings for it. Just like many people now have dogs, they have been dead for more than ten years, and they are reluctant to eat, which is the same reason.
But today, this phrase is outdated. In some places, not only horse meat is eaten, but now mule meat is also very popular, and some restaurants specialize in mule meat. After all, mules are now raised not to work, but to sell money or eat meat. The feeding time is short, and the taste is still OK. Friends, which of the above three kinds of meat have you eaten? What do you think of the fact that the ancients said that donkey meat and horse meat stink and starve to death and do not eat mule meat? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss!