March 13, 2021

"Poured into a tall glass it was the colour of cow’s milk and I couldn’t smell anything unusual. But as soon as I took the first sip..."

"I could taste the difference. It was slightly sweet and perhaps a little more watery than cow’s milk. Its sweetness reminded me almost of a milkshake.... As someone who wouldn’t drink a glass of milk on its own out of choice, I find it pleasantly tasty. If you can get over the hurdle of it coming from a horse then it seems a perfectly natural thing to be drinking."

From "Horse milk is ready for its heyday" (London Times).

73 comments:

Mr Wibble said...

Only if I can also ride the plains with my horde, raiding villages and taking tribute and slaves.

Amexpat said...

No milk today, my horse has gone away

wendybar said...

Horses have udders??

Mikey NTH said...

No, it is not.

Neither is eating insects. These are filler articles.

Carol said...

It was good enough for Genghis Khan.

Ryan said...

My paralegal is from Mongolia and she grew up drinking horse milk. They even give a form of horse milk beer to infants. But, wait until you hear how they milk the horse...

Temujin said...

Next comes horse meat steaks. It used to be the food of choice for some native Americans. We'll go full circle.

John henry said...

Shouldn't it be "hayday"?

John Henry

The Vault Dweller said...

I think they used to eat Horse meat in France, not sure who popular it is today. Horse milk sounds slightly off-putting, but not terribly. Goat cheese is tasty. But I will stick with good old Moo milk. However, I would rather drink horse milk than human breast milk. Although according to the British NHS, I think that is supposed to be called Chest Milk now, because Breast Milk others trans men or something.

chuck said...

And the menu of dairy options is vast. Mongolians milk every one of the seven livestock species in the country: cows, sheep, goats, horses, yaks, reindeer, and camel.

More here.

rhhardin said...

Use powdered milk and you can make it as strong or weak as you want. Also it stores well until you make it into a quart.

chickelit said...

That's wonderful!
Now do Alpo.

madAsHell said...

Wasn't this a gag in a Woody Harrelson movie?

FullMoon said...

You talking about Equine Nectar?

Lash LaRue said...

Thankfully, it’s a horse with no name. But, is it a horse of a different color?

Sarthurk said...

There were horse meat stores in the PNW in the 70's. Pretty good stuff!

Matt said...

Do horses fart less than cows? Are we looking to horse milk to save the planet from cow farts? Suspicious timing.

Francisco D said...

Hmmm!

I have been thinking of switching from Almond milk because I cannot figure out how they milk almonds.

Horses ... ?

Iman said...

WWWWWwwwwilburrrrrr!

Lurker21 said...

Udder madness!

Lurker21 said...

Just make sure you milk the mare, and not the stallion.

Although there are people who make good money doing the latter.

Iman said...

A horse is a horse of course of course
And you can’t get milk from a horse of course.
That is of course unless the horse
Is transitioning Mrs. Ed!
Go right to the source and milk the horse.
Shim give you a whinny that does endorse
And if done right, explode with force
Fer chrissakes Mrs. Ed!

People yakkity-yak a streak
And dick around all day,
but Mrs. Ed is at her peak
Won’t wait for a roll in the hay

LYNNDH said...

I have been to Mongolia where they drink it. But they ferment first. And that stuff is not really drinkable.

Yancey Ward said...

Who eats horse meat?

Wince said...

"I don't know if it was worth $5, but it's pretty fuckin' good."

alanc709 said...

Horse's milk is a rich person's indulgence. Farmers milk cows for the same reason we get eggs from chickens and not turkeys: too little product for the time invested.

FullMoon said...

That is of course unless the horse
Is transitioning Mrs. Ed!


I got company, and we all bustin' up.

FullMoon said...

..and, we not even smoking..

FullMoon said...

..or drinking..

Rory said...

I'm guessing this is a side product for whoever is supplying horse urine hormone ingredients?

The song above is inspired.

Joe Smith said...

My mom's family used to eat horse meat after WWII...apparently it wasn't very unusual then.

stever said...

Its a hard no for me.

Dr Weevil said...

Horse meat is still eaten in Italy, though I think mostly in Sicily. In 2019 I had a horse steak in Milan, horse-burgers (with cheese or bacon-and-cheese) in Palermo and Catania, and a donkey-burger (with cheese) in Catania. After the last, if people think I'm acting weird in an on-the-spectrum way, I just tell them it's my Assburger Syndrome acting up.

daskol said...

Beats eating bugs and lab-grown fakemeat as far as recent food trends. I remember learning in high school French class that there were horse butcher shops in France, and that it was cheaper than CoE and wondering how the economics of that worked out, but not enough to look into it (pre-web/internet days). I have a French side of the family and fwiw none of them under 50 or so ever ate horse meat.

gilbar said...

you Know Why people (think) they don't like cow's milk?
'cause somebody was giving them Crappy Skim Milk, and telling them it was milk
Crappy Skim Milk is NOT milk... It's JUST a Part of milk

If you try Delicious Whole Milk, you'll be pleasantly surprised

tim maguire said...

The idea of drinking any milk other than cow's is repulsive to me. Knowing that that is not a rational position changes nothing.

farmgirl said...

I had an old gelding that farted when he coughed.
Horses fart.
I lived around cows my whole life- they don’t fart. Not that they can’t, I suppose- it’s rare. Like vomiting. But, horses don’t ruminate, either.
I’ve never had horse meat- same for veal. I believe if we raised a veal calf, at least I’d know how he was treated and feel better about it.
And so- it’s choretime again.

Caligula said...

I'd suppose horse milk would be significantly pricier than cow milk, given that cows have been breed for centuries to produce huge amounts of milk. And perhaps it is even somewhat different from cow milk, but, is it enough to create a premium market for it? Especially when per-capita consumption of fluid milk has been falling for decades now?

Besides, what will you tell those you meet in The Land of the Houyhnhnms?

Mr. T. said...

They should mean "horse milk is ready for its hayday."

Quaestor said...

A horse is a horse of course, of course,
And you can’t get milk from a horse, of course.

Indeed.

A bit of technical information straight from the professional horsemen's collective mouth (via a former wannbe professional horseman):

Unless the Times editor responsible is a gender-bending cancel-culture nitwit, a distinct probability, said Times editor is ignorant of a certain basic fact. The product being discussed is mare's milk, there is no such thing as horse milk (unless you're pretending to be cheeky when in fact you're being obnoxious).

A mare is a female equine of reproductive age, generally taken to be over three Registry years old.

A filly is a female equine of three Registry years or less. A filly can also be a foal if unweaned.

A colt is a male equine of three Registry years or less. A colt can also be a foal if unweaned.

A gelding is castrated equine.

An intact male equine older than three Registry years is a horse.

Knowing these terms will help to make sense of the Racing Form.

tcrosse said...

Horse milk? Horse feathers!

Tina Trent said...

OK, Ryan. Nobody else bit.

How do they milk the horse?

Oso Negro said...

We have had a few posts in this blog about consumption of human breast milk in one form or another. I don't see mare's milk as a big deal.

Lucien said...

Dr. Weevil: I’ve heard women don’t order the assburger because eating it makes their hands look fat.

Bob Boyd said...

"Hoase milk? I gotcha hoase milk right hea." - Andrew Cuomo

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Quaestor said...

The product being discussed is mare's milk, there is no such thing as horse milk (unless you're pretending to be cheeky when in fact you're being obnoxious).

Shhhhh! You'll spoil the joke!

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

I got the horse right here,
The name is Paul Revere,
And here's a guy that says if the weather's clear,
Can milk,
Can milk,
This guys says the horse can milk...

tim in vermont said...

I remember when they were pushing horse semen cocktails on us

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/horse-semen-shots-custard_n_882053

One woman who tried it remarked that she might ask her boyfriend to start eating grass.

Still, as noted above, empires have been built on mare’s milk and the cheese they made with it. While the emperor’s army pulled huge carts of rice with oxen and a large number of non combatants to feed the soldiers, the Mongols were moving about at the speed of a galloping horse, which at that time may as well have been the speed of light.

The Great Wall of China is a testament to the power of mare’s milk.

Joe Smith said...

"I remember when they were pushing horse semen cocktails on us"

Milk?

That's not milk!!!

FullMoon said...

The idea of drinking any milk other than cow's is repulsive to me. Knowing that that is not a rational position changes nothing.

Yep, and that is why I don't ask "what's in it" when at a Filipino party.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Red rocket, red rocket! Says eric cartman.

iowan2 said...

You CAN eat or drink about anything. What we are exploring is nothing but culture.

Bovine milk is a thing because the milk yield, to feed ratio, is so good.

Joe Smith said...

"Yep, and that is why I don't ask "what's in it" when at a Filipino party."

My first real job was working for a Chinese tech company.

When we would go to a group lunch it was typical to bring out 6 or 7 dishes to share and put them on a lazy Susan.

Sometimes I would reach for some food and a Chinese colleague seated next to me would say, 'I don't think you want that one.'

: )

Jamie said...

"You can milk anything with nipples."

"I've got nipples," he said. "Can you milk me?"

I loved Meet the Parents.

iowan2 said...

The product being discussed is mare's milk, there is no such thing as horse milk

I is equine milk. To declare otherwise is the definition pedantic.

stevew said...

I don't drink cow's milk, though I will make espresso drinks with it, use it in baking, and add it to the usual stuff. Horse/Mare milk? Nothing I've ever experienced but, heck, why not?

Fritz said...

I know a woman who milked Weddell Seals. She told me the milk was so rich in fat it barely flowed. It's also loaded with iron, unlike most milk, because seals need a lot of iron in their blood and muscles to store oxygen while diving. I think she tasted it, but I don't remember a particular comment about it.

alanc709 said...

"The product being discussed is mare's milk, there is no such thing as horse milk"
You are obviously transphobic. What if the stallion identifies as a mare? That means he can produce milk, right?

Assistant Village Idiot said...

The girls in the West Midland cities in the mid 19th C would sell milk on the street from buckets with a dipper. "Warm milk! Fresh from the ass!"

Another reason to forego time travel.

Ralph L said...

It isn't real milk, it's foal's gold.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Cleopatra bathed in ass's milk. The heyday of horse's milk is upon us. If Andrew Cuomo could lactate, he would give horse's ass milk.

Joe Smith said...

"If Andrew Cuomo could lactate, he would give horse's ass milk."

He can, but the nipple bars block the flow...

Tom T. said...

Is there any milk that *doesn't* look a lot like cow's milk?

daskol said...

A filly is a female equine of three Registry years or less. A filly can also be a foal if unweaned.

Huh, so if a writer is comparing some young woman or something about some young woman to a filly, that's kind of a pedo vibe, at least equine-wise.

daskol said...

I don't think I've seen foal, but I've seen books with chicks called fillies. Probably fine filly. Lots of alliteration in pulp.

heyboom said...

I just tried kangaroo jerky for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't handle another jolt to my sensibilities so soon.

The jerky was actually very good, but the thought that it was kangaroo limited how much of it I was willing to eat.

chuck said...

My mom's family used to eat horse meat after WWII

IIRC, we also ate horse meat in the late 40's in New Mexico. I don't recall if it was often or just a one time thing.

iowan2 said...

I just tried kangaroo jerky for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't handle another jolt to my sensibilities so soon.

Early in the dating cycle with my wife, I took her to a house party. A mini testicle festival.
Hog, lamb, and turkey nuts. I told her the various offerings were from the SweetMeet portions of the carcass. We waited until it was past an hour after ingestion, and then outside, just to lessen cleanup chores if the mental image overwhelmed her gag reflex. But, all was good, and opened her up to a whole new food category.

Ryan said...

Tina, since you asked, here it is!

They have to trick the horse to milk it:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/milking-a-horse-is-harder-than-you-think/

JAORE said...

Sigh.... the next BIG thing!

Of course horse milk will never be as available, nor as affordable as cows milk.

Another sparkling object passing before our eyes.

mikee said...

The equine equivalent of Rocky Mountain Oysters are right out, as far as I am concerned.

MadisonMan said...

You can get Camel's milk (including chocolate versions!) in the mid-east. It's marketed in Australia as well.

Tina Trent said...

Ryan: my takeaway is that when you drink horse milk, you're getting a lot of foal spit.

Each for their own.