| Meat is animal flesh (mainly muscle
tissue) used as food, sometimes with the exception of fish, other seafood, and poultry. Originally, the word meat meant simply "food". It is also used as a vulgar way to refer to the
human body (see meat market).
For the most part, meat for human consumption comes from domesticated
animals bred specifically for this purpose, and killed in an abattoir.
The use of other meats, such as venison, the meat of small game animals and a few
other mammals, and even the meat of certain reptiles and amphibians, is not uncommon. The use of meat from other mammals is much
less common, although nearly every animal that lives has probably been used for human food at one time. What meats are used and
the way they are cooked depends on the availability and cuisine.
Thin sliced meats used in sandwich-making are called cold cuts in the United States.
In recent years, forms of imitation meat have been created to
satisfy some vegetarians' taste for the flavour and texture of meat, and
there is speculation about the possibility of growing in vitro meat from
animal tissue.
Meat Taboos and Religion
Some types of meat are taboo for certain religions (such as pork or beef) while others are due to their association as pets in those
countries, with the notable exception of rabbits in the West. The laws of Moses label some animals as clean and some as unclean. Both Judaism and Islam follow these laws. Clean meat in
Judaism is referred to by the word Kosher while in Islam the term for clean meat is
Halal. Until the mid-1960s, the Catholic Church forbade the eating of meat on Fridays. In America
though, Catholics are only asked to not eat meat on Ash Wednesday,
Good Friday and Fridays during Lent.
Buddhist belief advises against killing animals because of the bad
karma believed to be generated. However, eating meat when the animal has already been
killed (depending upon the individual's interpretation of karmic laws) might not necessarily carry this karmic penalty.
List of meats
The following list of meats includes animals which some cultures never eat or do not consider meat, as well as endangered species.
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