Horse meat gained widespread acceptance in French cuisine during the later years of the Second French Empire. The high cost of living in Paris prevented many working-class citizens from buying meat such as pork or beef, so in 1866, the French government legalized the eating of horse meat, and the first butcher's shop specializing in horse meat opened in eastern Paris, providing quality meat at lower prices. During the Siege of Paris (1870–1871), horse meat, along with the meat from donkeys and mules, was eaten by anyone who could afford it, partly because of a shortage of fresh meat in the blockaded
Horse meat is eaten nationally, and Tongan emigrants living in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia have retained the taste for it, claiming Christian missionaries originally introduced it to them. In Islamic law, consuming horse meat is Halal. The consumption of horse meat has been common in Central Asia societies, past or present, due to the abundance of steppes suitable for raising horses. In North Africa, horse meat has been occasionally consumed, but almost exclusively by the Christian Copts and the Hanafi Sunnis (a common form of Islam in Central Asia and Turkey), but has never been eaten in the Maghreb.