In fact, I once spotted some steaks at the meat counter of my local Montreal supermarket. They seemed unusually inexpensive, but as an American immigrant and French learner, I didn't realize the steaks were horse meat until after I got them home.

I pounded and floured them to make traditional US-Midwest-style "Swiss steak."

My husband and our foster son devoured them and complemented my cooking skills.

Then I told them.

Our son fled the kitchen in tears, and my husband slept on the couch for a couple nights. I promised never to serve them horse again.

But if I hadn't told them, they never would have realized.

And they both loved beef. Cows and steers are no less sentient or sensitive to pain than horses, so there isn't a lot of rationality to choosing to eat beef but not horse.

It's just a cultural taboo, albeit a very strong one in some people.

(By the way, for those who might object, horse meat is not popular in Montreal. This happened a long time ago, and even then horse meat was sold primarily to appeal to the tastes of older or elderly people who had eaten it as children. I think you'd be hard pressed to find it in any Montreal supermarket today.)