Horse meat primarily used in salami and sausages, usually mixed with pork, but also in goulashes and other stews. These products are sold in most supermarkets and many butcher shops. In Iceland, it is both eaten minced and as steak, also used in stews and fondue, prized for its strong flavor. It has a particular role in the culture and history of the island. The people of Iceland supposedly were reluctant to embrace Christianity for some time largely over the issue of giving up horse meat after Pope Gregory III banned horse meat consumption in 732 AD, as it was a major
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.