Some years ago, in an article entitled “Wanted, a New Meat,” the Spectator complained that dietetic provision is made nowadays “not for man as humanised by schools of cookery, but for a race of fruit-eating apes.” We introduce bananas, pines, Italian figs, pomegranates, and a variety of new fruits, but what is really wanted is “some new and large animal, something which shall combine the game flavour with the substantial solidity of a leg of mutton”[1] Surmising that there must exist “some neglected quadruped, which will furnish what we seek,” the Spectator proceeded to take anxious stock of the world’s resources, subjecting in turn the rodents, the pachyderms, and the ruminants to a careful survey, in which the claims even of the wart-hog were conscientiously debated. In the end the ruminants won the day, and the choice fell upon the Eland, which was called to the high function of supplying a new flesh-food for “humanised” man.
Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) Excerpted from “The Humanities of Diet” (Manchester: The Vegetarian Society, 1914), serialised on The Grumpy Vegan and available in full at the Animal Rights Library. Learn more Henry Salt.
