Do You Eat Babies?

[Henrietta]

Obviously not human ones.

Just reading another thread about soft shell crap and someone mentioned that they were baby crabs.

Do you feel guilty at choosing the young offspring of an animal as it's more succulent such as soft crabs, veal, baby chickens, calves, lamb and so on or do you say meat is meat and the younger the better?

[sandyRoe]

I don't know how anyone with a conscience can eat eggs. All those potential feathered lives denied existence.

[craft1948]

mmmm baby squid is lush........

[joggerjayne]

Now I feel really bad!

:0(

[boxtops]

I certainly don't feel guilty, but then (probably like many of us) I don't really think about it overmuch. We are dreadful at sentimentalising baby animals (big eyes, soft noses, etc) - but they are reared for food and we eat them. Putting pictures of baby animals on the food packaging would put people off altogether (it's like the chicken packaging I mentioned to JJ (JJ again) the other day).

I'm as much of a soft touch as anyone though - i don't like the thought of feeding live things, chicks or locusts in our pet shop, to other pets. That's why I tend not to think about it when I'm eating my lamb or veal. It's food.

[Henrietta]

I forgot sweet suckling pig.

Do vegetarians feel the same way about baby peas, baby carrots being ripped out of the ground before they can reach their prime?

[boxtops]

No sandy, only the fertilised ones, and most aren't :-)

[joggerjayne]

Actually, I'm not hugely fond of veal.

I like a nice, juicy steak.

Or steak tartare ... definitely yummers!

[boxtops]

Henrietta - I just realised that you wrote "soft shell crap"..... bleah.

[joggerjayne]

lol

[boxtops]

It depends what you mean by "prime" though - prime for young animals, for taste and texture, can be only a few weeks old.

[sandyRoe]

Suckling pig cooked in its mothers milk. Now, there's decadence.

[Frank97]

Saw a chap eating a live baby Octopus once, I'd draw the line at that, otherwise it doesn't concern me at all!

[sandyRoe]

If oysters weren't alive when you ate them you'd be in for a night on the toilet bowl.

[boxtops]

Aw sandy, I've gone off my dinner....

On the radio late last night they were talking about the Ortolan Bunting songbird which is a delicacy in France, which is captured, force-fed millet, then drowned in Armagnac. That sounded seriously cruel to me. It's illegal to do it, but they still do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting

[joggerjayne]

Sometimes you still are, Sandy!

[sandyRoe]

I suppose that depends on what the oyster was dining on.

[Amyadams67]

I can't believe no dead baby jokes are itt!

[joggerjayne]

Yeah, I'm just not sure if there are all that many dead baby jokes.

People walking into bars is probably a better source of gag material.

[Obiter]

I have only ever eaten veal once in my life. Never again. Absolutely tasteless and a waste of good money. Give me a bit of ox liver any time!