America loves meat. We’re talking burgers, steaks, chicken wings, and everything in between. But here’s something most people don’t know: there are actually some meats that used to be on American tables that you can’t legally eat anymore. Some got banned because animals were hunted too much and almost disappeared. Others got pulled from shelves because they could make people sick. A few got the boot because lawmakers decided eating them just wasn’t right. What’s wild is that many of these banned meats are still perfectly legal to eat in other countries around the world.
Sea turtle meat was once a presidential favorite
Turtle soup used to be fancy restaurant food that rich people loved ordering. President Howard Taft liked it so much between 1909 and 1913 that he hired a chef whose only job was making turtle soup. Campbell’s even sold canned versions in stores because regular families wanted to try what the wealthy folks were eating. The soup usually came from sea turtles swimming in American waters, and people caught so many that the population dropped fast.
Everything changed in 1973 when sea turtles got protection under the Endangered Species Act. Now, all six types of sea turtles that visit American beaches are endangered, and eating their meat can land you in serious legal trouble. The good news is that turtle soup didn’t completely disappear. Places in New Orleans like Galatoire’s still serve it, but they switched to using farm-raised snapping turtles instead. People say the meat tastes somewhere between chicken and veal, which explains why it was so popular back in the day.
Owl meat used to be sold in markets
Owls weren’t exactly a main course in America, but people did eat them when they needed extra food. John James Audubon wrote about it in his famous “Birds of America” books published between 1827 and 1839. He mentioned that barred owls showed up for sale in New Orleans markets pretty often. The local Creole cooks would throw them into gumbo, and apparently thought the meat tasted pretty good. Nobody today thinks of owls as food, but our ancestors saw them as just another bird that could fill an empty stomach.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 put an end to eating owls and over 1,000 other bird species. Senator George P. McLean pushed hard for this law, using his first speech in Congress to talk about saving American birds. Back then, people were hunting birds like crazy for their feathers and meat, and many species were in real trouble. Now it’s illegal to hunt, capture, or kill any protected bird. You can’t even keep a single feather from one. Thanks to these protections, barred owls are doing great and can be found all over North America.
Dog meat was technically legal until recently
Most Americans see dogs as family members who sleep on the couch and steal food off the counter. But eating dog meat wasn’t actually illegal at the federal level until 2018. During tough times in American history, people did eat dogs when they had no other options. Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal during the famous Lewis and Clark expedition that dog meat became a big part of what they ate. He even said he liked it better than lean deer or elk, which sounds shocking to anyone who’s ever had a pet dog.
Congress finally passed the Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act in 2018, making it officially illegal everywhere in America. Before that law, there were already state and local rules that basically prevented anyone from selling dog meat anyway. In other countries like China, Vietnam, and South Korea, some people still eat dog meat. There’s even a controversial dog meat festival in Yulin, China, every year, though surveys show that 87.5% of people living there say they rarely or never eat it.
Wild beluga caviar costs over a thousand dollars
Caviar is those tiny fish eggs that fancy restaurants serve on crackers or with sour cream. It’s super expensive and tastes really salty and fishy in a way that some people love. The French eat more caviar than anyone else in the world, at least the ones who can afford it. Recently, some chefs started serving it on Doritos, which seems like a weird combination of fancy and casual. The most prized type used to be beluga caviar, which comes from beluga sturgeon that have been around since dinosaur times.
Wild beluga sturgeon were banned from being brought into America in 2005 because their population had crashed hard. Between 1985 and 2005, about 90% of them disappeared because Americans were buying so much beluga caviar. There’s one farm in Florida that got special permission to raise beluga sturgeon and sell their eggs. You can find it in a few places, including one Hollywood lounge that charges $1,100 for just one ounce. That’s more than most people spend on groceries in a month, all for fish eggs from an endangered species.
Robin’s meat got baked into pies
Those cheerful red-breasted birds hopping around your yard used to end up on dinner plates. A butcher named Thomas F. DeVoe wrote in 1867 that huge numbers of robins showed up in New York markets, and thousands more got shot by hunters during September and October. People thought they tasted best when they were fat from eating all summer. The most popular way to cook them was baking them into robin pie, which sounds pretty grim if you’ve ever enjoyed watching robins hunt for worms in your lawn.
An old cookbook from 1890 called “Woman Suffrage Cook Book” included a whole recipe for robin pie. It told cooks to stuff the birds, roll them in flour, and layer them over beef and bacon in a pie dish with seasonings and broth. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act made eating robins illegal, and their population exploded as a result. Scientists now estimate there are more robins in America than people. Between 1966 and 2019, robin numbers kept growing steadily, which is a rare success story when so many other animals are struggling.
Ortolan bunting gets eaten with a napkin over its head
The ortolan bunting is a tiny songbird from Europe that became part of one of the weirdest food traditions ever. French chefs would fatten up the bird, then drown it in brandy, pluck its feathers, and roast it. The really strange part is how people ate it. Diners would drape a napkin over their heads and eat the entire bird in one bite, bones and all. Some people say the napkin traps the smell, but others joke that it’s to hide the shameful act from God, which gives you an idea of how controversial this dish is.
Ortolan showed up on early American restaurant menus, though it’s unlikely real European birds made it across the ocean. Chefs probably used native American birds and copied the technique instead. You won’t find ortolan on menus anymore in America or Europe because eating them caused their population to drop by 88%. Even France, which held onto the tradition the longest, finally banned it. Most people agree that this is one recipe that belongs in history books rather than restaurants.
Horse meat has better nutrition than beef
Americans never really got into eating horses, but people in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy eat it regularly. Horse meat is actually red meat, just like beef, but it has less fat and cholesterol and four times more iron. Horses also produce way less methane gas than cows, which means they’re better for the environment. Despite all these advantages, most Americans think eating horses is wrong, probably because we see them as pets and companions rather than livestock.
Eating horse meat isn’t technically a federal crime, but Congress made it illegal to sell, which basically eliminated it from stores and restaurants. Several states went further and banned eating it completely. American slaughterhouses kept processing horses for foreign countries until 2007, when Congress stopped funding inspections. Without inspections, the meat couldn’t be sold legally, so the whole industry shut down. Now, American slaughterhouses don’t process any horse meat for people to eat, though horses raised in America sometimes get shipped to other countries for processing.
Haggis contains sheep lungs that concern regulators
Haggis is Scotland’s national dish, but you won’t find authentic versions in American restaurants. It’s made from sheep organs mixed into a pudding, which is a polite way of saying it contains the guts and insides of the animal. Traditional haggis includes sheep heart, liver, and lungs, all mixed. While that combination might not sound appetizing to everyone, lots of Scottish people love it and consider it an important part of their food traditions and cultural identity.
The United States Department of Agriculture has a problem specifically with the lung part. American regulations ban using lungs in any food product because of concerns about stomach acid and other fluids getting into the lung tissue during slaughter. This means authentic Scottish haggis can’t be imported or made in America. Some American companies make haggis without the lungs, but people who’ve tried both versions say it’s just not the same. Scottish people visiting America often complain about not being able to find real haggis anywhere.
Foie gras remains controversial in California
Foie gras is fancy French food made from the liver of ducks or geese. To make it, farmers feed the birds way more than they would normally eat, which makes their livers get really big and fatty. Restaurants charge a lot of money for it, and people who like it say the taste is rich and buttery. People who don’t like the idea of foie gras say the feeding process is mean to the animals. This disagreement has caused major legal battles, especially in California, where the arguments get really heated.
California banned selling foie gras in 2004, though the ban didn’t actually start until 2012. Then, in 2015, courts temporarily lifted the ban before putting it back in place again. Restaurants and chefs in California have gone back and forth for years about whether they can serve it. The law keeps changing as different groups challenge it in court. In the rest of America, foie gras is perfectly legal and shows up on fancy restaurant menus. The whole situation shows how one state can have completely different food rules than everywhere else in the country.
The laws about what meat Americans can eat have changed a lot over the years. Most bans happened because animal populations were disappearing or because lawmakers decided certain practices weren’t acceptable anymore. While some people miss being able to try these unusual meats, the restrictions have helped protect endangered species and prevented potentially dangerous food from reaching American tables. What’s legal to eat in America often comes down to a mix of conservation needs, safety concerns, and changing ideas about which animals should be protected.
