[Sca-cooks] Why *X* and not *Y*?

[Dragon]

Heleen Greenwald wrote:
>Please...... What does kangaroo taste like?  And please don't say
>chicken...... It's just that after reading this thread for a
>while..... now I am curious as all get out.

It was surprisingly beef-like but not quite the same. Maybe a touch 
gamier. Definitely leaner, but still quite tasty. I had it just a 
tiny bit on the medium side of rare.

I really liked it. I wish I had a regular supply. My taste of 
kangaroo steak happened at a restaurant in Denver, CO called the 
Denver Buffalo Company. It was one of three items on the "wild 
sampler" I had that evening which included wild boar and alligator 
sausage along with the kangaroo.

>It strikes me as curious that we  (used as a general pronoun) get
>certain mind-sets that  *X* is OK to eat (ie,, beef) while *Y* is NOT
>OK to eat  (ie dog) in this culture anyway. And I mean that as an
>emotional reaction, not religious or dietary.

All food choices are culturally driven at their root. Individual 
choices are also emotionally derived.

>I know that  (stupidly,
>I'm sure, I am sitting here wondering what kangaroo tastes like, but
>if you were to give me a kana-burger... I'd gag and not be able to
>eat it.  I grew up with tongue, which I remember being delicious, but
>today I would gag on it.  That's just overly emotional , not useful
>at all...... Thank You Spock..... OK, I;m free-associating now.... I
>have to leave.....

If I fed you one and didn't tell you it was kangaroo, I don't think 
you would have noticed.

>...... or why do they sell lamb, beef, chicken freely, or rather
>commonly in supermarkets, but not deer? Or baby lamb, but not
>mutton?

Cows and pigs and chicken and sheep are all domesticated, deer and 
elk and moose are not. There are some small producers of venison for 
commercial sale but they are not big.

Under USDA rules, lamb is any sheep under one year of age. Mutton can 
be had at ethnic markets mostly, I guess that it tastes too strongly 
for the average American taste and is thus not popular. Personally, I like it.

Duck and goose are more available now than they used to be even a few 
years ago, I see them in my mainstream supermarket almost all the 
time now. Definitely both of these are regularly available in Asian markets.

>Can you get mutton freely in Britain?

My understanding is yes, but I can't say that from personal experience.

>Just wondering...
>Phillipa
>Have I been banished to the Rock?

Maybe... But would we tell you...? ;-)

(Just kidding of course).

Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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