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
Meat hanging Meat hanging Meat hanging is a culinary process, used in beef aging, that improves the flavor of meats by allowing the natural enzymes in the meat to break down the tissue through dry aging. The process also allows the water in the meat to evaporate, thus concentrating the flavor. Meat has been hung and dry aged throughout history after butchers discovered that this method makes beef more tender and flavorful than meat eaten immediately after slaughter and butchering. In the 1960s, a combination of meat hanging’s expense and the new process of wet-aging caused meat hanging to almost stop entirely.