4 German Foods are ILLEGAL IN AMERICA | Would you try them?

[@Enevan1968]

Raw milk? Yes! Horsemeat? Yes, leanest meat around. Absinth? Yup. Kinder Surprise? Can't imagine a childhood without one.

[@puellanivis]

Is Horsemeat actually more lean than rabbit? I do know that rabbit is so lean you can run into Kaninchenhunger from eating only rabbit, where there is such a deficiency of fat that you can get into problems.

[@boelwerkr]

@@puellanivis The taste of rabbit meat is highly dependent on the stuff they eaten. Wild rabbit often didn't taste good, can be tough and then is only used in soups. It can taste as worse a goat meat. Horse meat on the other hand has a very mild taste is lean and soft. They don't live stressed lives and have a lot of space, they are not a prominent food stock. It was different 120 years go when horses primary existed to do hard work. That meat was tough, dry and hard as leather. Today it's the best meat you can get in Europe.

[@puellanivis]

@@boelwerkr Sure, but I am asking as to the assertion that horse meat is the “leanest meat around”, in particularly because rabbit meat is so lean that it is/was specifically known (and named) as a cause of malnourishment.

[@gordybishop2375]

You can get fat from nuts or avocados etc. better healthier fats if fats really needed. I mean if vegetarians are good without eating animal fat I am sure horse is fine

[@boelwerkr]

@@puellanivis Yes wild rabbit has very little fat in late winter, the spring, but can be quite fat in autumn and early winter. Rabbits raised in cages are quite fatty. The thing is that people traditionally ate rabbit if they didn't have any other meat and that's in the late winter and spring.

[@eduardbernhuber6481]

You can’t buy „Überraschungseier“ but you can buy Guns in different Colors for Kids😂😂Freakshow USA

[@JohnHazelwood58]

Ü-Eier are dangerous! A stupid person could choke on it ... you can't choke on a gun as they are not edible! XD

[@eduardbernhuber6481]

@@JohnHazelwood58 But you can choke the Bullets😂

[@jacquesverhaeghe7543]

@johnHaselwood58 . The Ü-Ei is much too big to be swallowed by a kid or a normal adult. Obviously, morons can always set up some stupid tiktok challenge, maybe some of them can earn a well deserved Darwin Award.

[@klausschumacher7126]

@@JohnHazelwood58 that's why the eggs kill every year more than 30 thousand people in the US...

[@pso1234]

@@JohnHazelwood58 ohh and a stupid person can't shoot himself?

[@oakld]

I have family friends who have a homestead. When one of their horses suffered too much from pain and there was no help, it was put down and took to a butcher and it ended up as a meat and salami in their fridge and freezer. I've eaten it too. Now, while some city people might be disgusted by this, the modern life parted away from realities of how nature works is to blame, not this approach. For people having a homestead, it would be a sin and disrespect to get the animal burned or buried.

[@wolfgangpreier9160]

👍👍👍

[@JustClaude13]

They also make exceptional leather. The finest and most desirable leather for fine dress shoes is Cordovan leather, which is made from the hind quarters of a horse. I've had horse when I was kid, and it was pretty good meat.

[@oakld]

@@JustClaude13 Interesting, I didn't know that :-). Horse meat has been always a thing across the world back when horses were used in mass, especially in the US. I think that most people have eaten horse meat without knowing, because as far as I know it used to be added into common meat products in small percentage (at least in Europe). It was a common practice and under some circumstances it was legal. But it lead to a misuse with percentages as high as 100% and consequently to 2013 Meat Scandal after which adding a horse meat have become problematic even within legal limits. At least this is what I know from media and my sister who works in a meat corporate.

[@TypeAshton]

Excellent point. I come from a farming family, and although we only produce corn and soybeans now - in the past they raised hogs and other animals and were always so resourceful.

[@berndb3141]

My father owned large working horses all his life. We had them to log wood and did the same when they were old and hurting. Besides, what are you gonna do with a 750 kg carcass?

[@sekborg5757]

The "Kinder Joy" is also available in Germany, but it has always been the bad version of the Kinder Egg. I hated it as a kid.

[@HansWurst-lg1ws]

Dunno, I personally loved them for the 2 Giotto-ish balls. They just became outrageously expensive real quick (like +10cents each year)

[@xetinc5356]

was the summer version cause it wouldnt melt.

[@TypeAshton]

I tried both for this video and I think I preferred the original as well.

[@asmodon]

Kinder Joy is too sweet for me.

[@88marome]

I've only seen them in recent years in Sweden and they always have terrible "toys" if you can even call them toys.

[@miny1370]

Wow I am shocked about bringing Ü-Eier to the US! For a student exchange in 2013 I brought along six of the eggs as a present for my host family and they all arrived safely and weren't taken out of my luggage. Lucky I didn't know about this high fine back then and it just worked out all right 😅

[@TypeAshton]

Oooooo! A criminal mastermind! 😉

[@GoGlennR]

I did the same. The grandson of a close family friend of ours in Houston, TX, loved these eggs, and I used to bring them to the USA for decades!😂

[@stephaniepeters2590]

What also gets me is that these same children who are thought to fall prey to these evil eggs, are trusted with guns especially crafted for small hands. I'd venture a guess that more children die in the US as a consquence of gun violence than choking on a toy. With proper parental supervision, either one is manageable, and I'd argue the egg is plenty safer, at that.

[@DagmarHills-lm5wu]

9​@@stephaniepeters2590

[@thorstenbrandt6256]

I fully get the point, that something embeded inside a candy can be a "choking hazard", but if you look at the size of the yellow capsule inside a Ü-Ei.... you have to try reeeaally hard to choke on that, especially if you are a kid. The egg itself is around 10cm high and 5cm at the middle. The yellow thingy inside is a little smaller (surprise), so lets say: 8 x 4cm. To choke on that you have to try to eat the whole egg in one bite. Who on earth does something like that? And - if I remember it correctly (I don't have one at hand) - they are "for children 3 or older". So if the parent has an IQ higher than room temperature the kids should be safe ;-)

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Celsius or Fahrenheit?

[@anthonykaiser974]

@@schwarzerritter5724 no, Kelvin.

[@oOIIIMIIIOo]

I don't know, all kids I know, knew to handle a Kinder surprise egg. 🤔🤷

[@Kazuya720]

@@anthonykaiser974 Whats about Kevin? :D

[@anthonykaiser974]

@@Kazuya720 KELVIN

[@philippes960]

In France, there are still specialist butcher shops called "Boucherie Chevaline", but largely in decline (1500 in 2010 - 750 in 2014)

[@daviddavidsonn3578]

spangero 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@GoGlennR]

Yes, and when my dad visited me in Europe around 1977, we made a trip from Germany to Paris, France. There we ate at a steak restaurant and didn't know until later that the steak was from horse meat! 😂 As I remember, the meat tasted a little sweet!

[@TheGarryq]

There are several shops in the UK, both physical and exclusively online, that supply horsemeat too. Demand is small but growing and wasn't really affected by the 2013 "Great Horsemeat Scandal" simply because people knew what they were buying

[@waragh]

Also in Iceland more common meat.

[@philippbachmann9069]

In Switzerland, you will find horsemeat even in the smallest grocery stores, and at least sometimes employees can get it in their respective factory canteen for lunch. In Germany and probably other countries as well, especially people who went to World War II. did not eat horsemeat for the rest of their lives because they had to slaughter and feed on horses as a matter of survival, this is also true for those who became prisoners of war-this might in part explain why horsemeat is still not as popular in Germany as e.g. in Switzerland.

[@Llortnerof]

Far bigger issue is availability. Horsemeat was commonplace when workhorses were. Nowadays, few people keep horses and they're to expensive to raise just for food. There just aren't enough horses for all of Germany.

[@tullio0]

Imdeed. In Switzerland you can also find horse meat in many restaurants.

[@anthonykaiser974]

@@tullio0 I found it in the ZRH HBf meat counter in the underground mall. First and really only place I saw it. That was 10 years ago.

[@Silas276]

In a Pferdemetzgerei (horse butcher) near where I live in canton St. Gallen you can even get zebra meat. It is similar to horse meat in taste, just a bit gamier. Most commonly horse meat would be used to make Mostbröckli (cured meat) or Landjäger (hunter's sausage) or sausages.

[@kaess307]

As teenagers we were with the sports club in Paris. We were invited to dinner by our hosts and there was steak. It tasted good, but a little different than at home. It came from a French kitchen and so it had to be prepared differently. After the meal they told me it was horse meat. This was the first time I ate horse meat.

[@Rumms-Bumms69]

Was delicious, wasn't it?

[@arnodobler1096]

I saw a video the other day of an American (adult) biting into the yellow plastic egg, though he still said "looks like plastic" 🤣 Tolles Video Ashton

[@jennyh4025]

🤦‍♀️I would assume one has to be either very stupid or not able to read the slightest bit of the language printed on the foil to do that…

[@arnodobler1096]

@@jennyh4025 yes maybe 😂

[@TypeAshton]

hahahah awe oh no... perhaps this is why they need the regulation after all. 😂

[@jonathanwessner3456]

I grew up in a dairy area in the US, where farms were way closer than stores. Drank a lot of raw milk. I only use whole milk, because low fat milks taste funny to me

[@ContraVsGigi]

+1 on that. I grew up drinking freshly milked milk, the one with foam, pretty mich all sumer long + weekends. That was either milked in front of me (manually) and I was waiting to have my share, or 5 minutes later. Cannot stand the low fat milk, it tastes like colored water.

[@verenakremer6748]

If you only drank whole milk, what did you do when something needed cream or butter?

[@jonathanwessner3456]

@@verenakremer6748 I buy actual cream and butter?

[@peterjaro6804]

You have such wonderful CLEAR voice. American English is not always the easiest of accent (think rural V.Virginia or a small town in the south) but everyone in the world (who can understand at least a little bit English), can understand you.

[@TypeAshton]

Thank you so much!

[@ronaldf.a6008]

Hallo gaes

[@israelizzyyarrashamiaak766]

Her English seems perfectly fine to me ? She sounds American lol I don’t understand the comment. Her English is better than half the Americans I know 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@steffenrosmus9177]

@@TypeAshton problem for me you use your hands and arms too much to underline your words. Could you talk with an broken arm or hand ? 😉

[@fw5218]

Just a little, hopefully helpful tip: The "Z" in German is pronounced like a "TS" in American English. Like the ending in the word "Cats". Hence, words like "Vorzugsmilch", even though I have never heard that word in my long German life, should be easier to pronounce for you guys. I've tested this with my American friends and it works like a charm. "Vortsugsmilch", so to say. Thanks for all the great content, we love it!

"Fortsugsmilch"…

[@TypeAshton]

Thanks for the tip!

[@bill2p]

And in German, the “v” always sounds like an “f” so “for-tsugs-milch.” I really don’t like to make it a practise of correcting KZbinrs’ pronunciations, but this one made me cringe every time you said it.

[@flamedealership]

@@bill2p I share your aversion of correcting KZbinrs that are abraod and try to use the local language but let me, a native German, correct your claim that the "v" ALWAYS sounds like an "f". Although it's true for the most part, there are a bunch of words where the "v" is pronounced as a German "w". Words like "Version - Wersion" or "variabel - wariabel" or "Valentinstag - Walentinstag". No offense here - just saying...

[@bill2p]

@@flamedealership Yeah you’ve got a point. There are a few foreign-origin words (mostly of French origin?) where the V sounds like an English V. But in the vast majority of German words v sounds like f. Verboten, Vorfahrt, Verzeihung etc.

[@justme9801]

Again very interesting information. I did not know about the milk but was aware that Überraschungseier are banned in the US. The "Überraschung" for me was the insanely high fine.

[@TypeAshton]

Agreed!

[@ulrichrenner6256]

Very interesting, you earned my like. Just one thing: V is a bit tricky in German, pronounced like an English v when the word is derived from latin and like f when it is of Germanic origin. The German z is so easy, always like ts. Vorzugsmilch is pronounced like fortsugsmilch. You nailed the vowels and the ch-sound in that word, though, and that was the hard part for an English speaker.

[@TypeAshton]

Thanks for the tip!

[@HalfEye79]

The thing with the choking with the Ü-Ei is a thing: That yellow egg inside the choclate is way to big that a child could take it into their mouth accidentally. And even if that, it is way to big that someone could try to swallow it.

[@TypeAshton]

I can understand the extra caution and after some googling there have been a handful of choking incidents. However, they are extremely rare in comparison to the choking incidents that happen with hard candies.

[@cinnamoon1455]

@@TypeAshton or nuts.. another classic.

[@nelerhabarber5602]

@@TypeAshton The "problem" is the toy inside the yellow capsule, children can swallow the parts (most the toy has little parts to put them together), BUT 1. the capsule is not easy to open, special for children younger than 3 years old, 2. parents should be next to the children and 3. the tiny toys are not interesting for so little kids who put everything possible in the mouth. There are so many really dangerous things like coloured pills (medicine), peanuts, chestnuts, cleaning agents......!

[@hendman4083]

Maybe the US should apply the same vigor to gun control and traffic safety, if they are so worried about the well being of children. 🙄

[@nelerhabarber5602]

Children in the U.S. most likely to die from gunshot wounds. More than 4300 children and adolescents died in 2020 from firearms - for example in homicides and unintentional killings, researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor report in the New England Journal of Medicine.@@hendman4083

[@martinsenoner8186]

We by horsemeet in my supermarket in in a lokal horsebutcher, i used to use rawmilk on the conutryside (in the sommer) my kids like Kinder joy

[@anikap]

When I spent a year abroad in the US in 2009 for school my mom sent me a package containing a "Überraschungsei" and I had to go to customs to get what she had sent me. No fines though and I did get the egg as well but it was a huge hustle just for some sweets

[@TypeAshton]

Customs is a funny place sometimes no matter where you are. Jonathan's mom mailed him homemade cookies once. The box was stuck in customs for 2 weeks and Jonathan had to get them out of the packaging and "prove" that they were home-made and not commercial where he'd owe import duties. Perhaps a good compliment to Jonathan's mom for making professional looking treats!

[@michaelmedlinger6399]

I found out about the ban on Kinder Überraschungseier a couple of years ago when an American friend who was visiting told me she had planned to take some back and was totally surprised to find out how illegal it was. I couldn’t believe it, so I looked it up, and sure enough! While watching your video, I thought again of Cracker Jacks (which I used to buy when I was a child because I wanted the toy. Didn’t like the Cracker Jacks, but my parents said I had to eat the stuff if I wanted the toy). Thanks for answering that question! And thanks for another interesting video!

[@TypeAshton]

It is really interesting to me as well with the "work arounds" on the laws. King's cake with the little plastic baby inside is another treat that also comes to mind.

[@ralfklonowski3740]

If it is OK for safety-crazy Germany, it should be OK for everyone else. The 2500$ fine for a Kindrüberraschungsei was a Surprise (pun intended ;-) Horsemeat used to be sold by special butchers (Pferdemetzger), and most towns had one of those. It is still a thing, but harder to come by as it used to be. In my town there is a grill that sells horse meat balls. Some dishes like the Rheinischer Sauerbraten were originally designed for horsemeat, and real afficionados wouldn't do with any beef fakes. Very informative video as always. Greetings from the Ruhr and have a nice sunday! PS: OK, I should not comment before watching till the end. You explained Sauerbraten perfectly.

[@ingobordewick6480]

Only a Sauerbraten from horsemeat is a real Sauerbraten. Taste sooooo good!

[@ralfklonowski3740]

@@ingobordewick6480 Totally agree!

[@TypeAshton]

So glad you enjoyed the video! I am going to be on the lookout now to see if I can find horse meat at our local butcher.

[@de00001]

​@@TypeAshton My grandma's niece told me once that she received food cans with "horse" from the US, right after WWII when people desparately needed food. She never knew what she ate, she couldn't speak English, and we didn't tell her what "horse" is.

[@claudiakarl2702]

@@TypeAshton You can get horse cold cuts in form of rookvlees in the Netherlands. The horse version tastes better than the veal one in my opinion.

[@mohammeddavidzhang-singh5846]

In Japan you can get at some restaurants raw horse meat. It's named sakura (桜) or sakuraniku (桜肉) and served like sashimi. It tastes very well.

[@vertraeumtemoewe]

Ok, this sounds new to me. Doesn’t Sakura mean something different? You know, the Sakura Leafes/ Cherryblossoms?

[@LaureninGermany]

That was interesting about the absinthe. I‘d always wondered about that and never bothered to look it up. But the Kinder Surprise exasperates me! It’s that thing where a government body stops people thinking for themselves, I‘m sure American kids can tell the difference between the chocolate and the plastic toy. They have put so much thought into the ban, it’s got my eyes rolling lol! I hope they never fine people who are clearly just bringing a couple for their grandchildren etc. and don’t realise it’s banned.

[@NateLawson]

Kinder Eggs were my favorite when I lived in Germany! I think I might still have a lot of the toys. It didn't make any sense to me when I found out that they were banned in the US. I just kept thinking that if your kid choked on it then they were better than me at getting the darn yellow plastic egg apart. lol

[@TypeAshton]

Hahaha good point! 🤣🤣

[@daviddavidsonn3578]

It's a darwin award test surprise if you lose, you die. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@darrylrichman]

During my first visit to Germany in 1983, there was a horse meat vendor prominently located in Munich's Viktualenmarkt. I think it has been gone for a long time now, but it made an impression on me at the time. I'm an "adventurous eater", but, as a tourist with no ability to cook food myself, I didn't have the opportunity to try this out at the time, and now it seems like I might not get to in the future.

[@joeviolet4185]

Wormwood (bot.: Artemisia absinthium) can be grown in any soil, if the climate is warm enough and the soil is not waterlogged, which is the case in many parts of Germany. One of our neighbours, who is from Croatia, often hung a twig of wormwood in his glass of red wine for 10 - 15 min before he drank. The wormwood is leached a little by the wine, thus giving it a special taste. In France, since 1900 up to dunno, Absinth was also banned, but by now it is astablished that the observation that absinth drinkers often did crazy things most likely resulted from the sheer alcohol content (up to 80% of volume) in the strong Absinths at that time, rather than from the Thujone. Fun Fact: Thujone is also contained in Juniper, which is the aromatic base of Gin. Thus, if you'd like to consume a green liqour containing thujone in the USA, just import (or buy) a green Gin instead of green Absinth. As to meat: I find horse delicious, whether in the form of Sauerbraten, Grillwürstchen or Steak. Rabbit is quite common in places in Gemany. Many self-catering people even breed rabbits at home, but also hare is often shot by hunters and is generally appreciated. Raw milk: Some time ago there was quite an argument about Cheese from raw milk. The EU was trying to ban it, but the French opposed, since some of the best cheeses of France are made from milk that is not pasteurised.

[@apveening]

Hare can be very tasty, been too long since I had a good Hasenpfeffer. Some of the best cheeses of the Netherlands are also made from raw milk. Unfortunately, those are only made in small quantities and aren't readily available.

[@juttapopp1869]

As a child, I was sent to a local Farm to buy a litre of milk almost daily. My mum would boil it then, but we always had some before. Yummy!!

[@thegreenengineer7994]

I would say there is way more food, and food additives that are legal in the USA and are absolutely illegal in Germany. From food colouring to conversative additives, and also the sugar limit is regulated. (For expample many sweeteners are illegal in Germany, some which are used in Light Coke is used in pig feast to increase their hunger and produce faster fat)

[@JELWwL6unE8V7iGB3]

When I think about non-food in food, fortune cookies come to mind, although the paper isn't much of a choking hazard. It makes me wonder if the kinder surprise eggs could be sold in USA if they had a ribbon that extended outside the chocolate, so that the non-food wasn't 100% contained. I notice there's lots of recipes for vasilopita but no products. Another alcohol I've read it's challenging to commercially produce in USA is distilled mead. Although maybe the laws expired and it hasn't caught on since.

[@Cobinja]

I grew up in a small town in germany with a dairy farmer literally next door. We always got our milk directly from them. Every couple days I would go over and buy 1,5 liters. There's nothing like a glass of milk that is still warm from the cow. We also bought eggs from them.

[@flostar81]

Very interesting video and so professionally done, top. The thing with the milk I did not know myself, to be honest. I hope you allow Jack to consume surprise eggs ;-) Have a nice Sunday.

[@TypeAshton]

We try to limit his sweets.... but that being said, chocolate is his favorite. I'm sure he will love them.

[@Opa_Andre]

Wow, thank Ashton you so much for your professional research. As always, this was very helpful and informative. In my childhood in the '60s the milkman came to our street once a week to sell his milk driving his van which was somehow comparable to the nowadays rarely seen ice cream trucks. When he rang his bell, usually we kids grabbed our two 5-liter-cans to buy and bring it home where mum boiled it in special pots so it lasts for a week. In my figurative memories, I still see him in his truck using a large ladle to pour the milk from two large tankers into the cans. Till now I also wasn't aware of those insane possible fines for an surprice-egg. To me, that was just a rumor. So I should consider myself lucky that I didn't get caught by U.S. Customs back in the '90s when I brought a couple of these with me to gift them to my coworkers.

[@TypeAshton]

That's really cool. Growing up, I never experienced a milkman... but we did have a Swanson's ice cream truck that would come by periodically and sell the giant tubs of ice cream.

[@pigoff123]

Kinder eier are not illegal in the states. I have been bringing back a dozen or more twice a year for my grandkids. Customs has never said anything about it. I also bring back gravy and other mixes. When my mother passed away I brought back a lot of food items knowing I will probably never afford to go home again. Never had a problem.

[@Cowboy-in-a-Pink-Stetson]

The toys in the Ü-Eier have become collectors items. Some are very rare and have become worth a lot. Real 'Geek' collectors can be seen rattling the eggs (the contents apparently sound different) before buying them or some even take highly accurate measuring scales to the store with them. Again, the difference in weight can disclose the true content. ....... Funny old world .......... Loved the video. Thank you.

[@yasminesteinbauer8565]

In the summer we also have the Kinder Joy in Germany. Previously, the Kinder Surprise Eggs were simply not available for purchase in the summer because the thin shell would simply melt too easily. And how about opening the eggs and separating them from the toy before bringing them into the US? You can then put them back together later.😅

[@ciddax754]

Never tried Vorzugsmilch, but bought milk directly from the farmer. That milk was only cooled and was inside the cow only a handful of hours ago. It tastest richer then the milk from a discounter as it contains the cream too. Horse meat is part of some traditional receipts but you can get it as a steak too. It tastes quite good, with an own unique taste. But you get only the best meat from your local slaughter. The most of it ends in dog or cat food. When you buy a horse and a vet checks it for the first time, you have to decide if it is classified as a "Schlachtpferd" (horse for slaughter) or a "Sportpferd" (horse for sport). The difference are the meds your horse can get. A "Schlachtpferd" cannot receive lots meds, while the "Sportpferd" has no such problems. You can always change a "Schlachtpferd" into a "Sportpferd" but never back.

[@ImperatorTom]

Seeing absynth i was reminded of Waldmeister (sweet woodruff). it is quite the iconic german taste and i would recommend you trying it and maybe even including it in a video. it comes in some different forms and i would recommend it as götterspeise and brause and perhaps even as brause-pulver, but i dont use it, so i dont know how good it is. just remember to cool your brause for a few hours before tasting it, since thats when it tastes best. oh and also try getting the brause in a 1,5l bottle (for example from ili) or so and not the one in a can. this is just my personal preference though.

[@shimone6116]

Speaking about woodruff I would not recommend "Götterspeise" or some industrial fabricated drinks, but the real thing. Wait for the season (may till june) and get a "Maibowle". It is usually a wine punch flavoured with woodruff and tastes really well if made correctly.

[@HalfEye79]

Der gute, alte Wackelpudding. Der Originale. Lecker. Auch ohne Zusätze.

[@geneviere199]

@@shimone6116 Maibowle is a drink of my childhood. My Grandpa used to go into the woods to get woodruff and then dried hanging on the windowknob. And some time later - usually to my moms birthday in May - he made Maibowle. We were too young for it - but we usually got a little glass with it.

[@denniswitt1638]

While wormwood is only hallucinogenic pure woodruff is toxic.

[@mamabear3428]

Berliner weisse mit Waldmeister. 😋

[@puellanivis]

It turns out that lollipops fall into the same provision that the Kinder Überraschung does, but have an exception to allow their sale.

[@timacrow]

I once was making a bitter digestif using a LOT of wormwood steeped for a week in vodka. The result was VERY bitter and probably had a lot of thujone. I finished the bottle in a few days (I was bored), but had no hallucinations or other side effects, other than the usual effects of the vodka.

[@sakkra83]

I was raised on "Rohmilch", my parents befriended a milk cattle farmer in Larrelt. Everyday we had to go fetch milk from the farm, and what was left on the next evening was turned into "Dickmilch", which is some kind of proto-cheese, very tasty with cinnamon and sugar.

[@Jan324td]

For me, growing up in a rural community it was absolutly normal to drink raw milk. In fact at one of the dairy farms there was a room wich was accesable for the public where the freshly milked milk was pumped into a cooling tank and at this tank there was a small valve with a cup next too it so you could get sip of milk. Next to the Tank was a table with a calk written sign that said. Fresh Milk 1Liter 50Pfennig (the german cent at that time) And you know what. This room with the tank is still there 35years later. And yes i have also eaten horse meat and drank absinh. No big deal .

[@berndb3141]

Thanks for sharing, this was interesting. I did not know about any of this.

[@Astrofrank]

Food really is a good vehicle for exploring other countries, especially if you try to buy and eat it in the region where it is eaten most: Fischbrötchen and Krabbenbrötchen at the coast of the North Sea or in Hamburg, Pumpernickel in Westphalia, Schweinshaxe in Bavaria. You not only discover new dishes, but also can get into conversations with the locals.

[@maxmoritz2786]

A friend of mine used to ship home Kinder Eggs, along with other chocolate goodies, when he was stationed over here with the Army. I guess 30 years ago it probably wasn‘t really followed.

[@MrsWheezer]

Thirty years ago, when I first moved back to the US, tons of the kinder eggs were sent to the US. I even got some my parents sent through the mail, lol.

[@szaszm_]

I'm from Hungary, growing up in a somewhat rural area. Raw milk was just "milk" in my early years, and I regularly drank it later as well, after boiling. Not so much anymore. I've also tried horse sausage: Occasionally an acquaintance has some and I usually get one. I like it, but it's not my favorite. It has a strong specific taste, similar to wild boar in strength, but much better tasting. Absinthe: among my first drinks, at around 14. I didn't become an alcoholic so far, despite living in the country with the most alcoholics in the EU. I'm 28 now, drinking about once or twice a month. Kinder eggs: among my favorite sweets as a child. It was a rare treat in my childhood, usually getting it around Easter. The US has always been very backwards in thinking, worrying about things that people choose, while not regulating the sneaky industrial toxins that get in the foods and environment. Their belief of "American exceptionalism" made them less likely to learn from other developed nations.

[@Anatisti]

In Germany there restriction on selling and butchering horse meat. Therefore there a specialist stores, so that raw horsemeat neverlies beneth any other meat. But you can find caned horse meat in Supermarket if you ask for it. One of the well knownst butcher for horse meat ist Hobbold in Recklinghausen. They have also a restaurant, if you ever want to try it. Horsemeat was very popular after WW2, because it was a very avaible because of the work horses in the Ruhrgebiet. In my youth (1970s) there was a van like today the icetruck that sold Pferdeklopse (Horsemeatballs) to all around the city.

[@Kelsea-2002]

I grew up near Kaiserslautern and there is still a horse butcher there.We were also often on holiday in southern Italy and there I also got to know donkey meat. Both are extremely tasty.

[@Tritagonist1985]

"Oh you want a Kinderüberraschung?! Sorry, thats illegal....but how about an AR-15 with your Cheeseburger?"

[@Andreas_Cologne]

That's totally legal, when there's a "do-not- eat-this-item"-sticker attached. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@theFado96]

I've eaten so many Kinder eggs during my childhood and let me tell you this: by the time I was old enough to figure out how to open the surprise plastic "box" without asking my parents to do it for me, I was also old enough to understand not to eat the damn thing.

[@LunaBianca1805]

I still feel it's ridiculous that practically everyone can own a gun in the States, but you get fined so much money when bringing a hecking Kinder Egg to the US. Yes, I know it's hazardous if a kid swallows small pieces from them (hence the warning that you shouldn't let your kid with that stuff unsupervised) , but isn't a gun even more of a threat 🤔?

[@TypeAshton]

Personally I would agree with you. It often feels like we over regulate in some areas and under do it in many. They are very different issues, of course but the question always is whether the response matches the threat.

[@daviddavidsonn3578]

they can swallow bullets, apparently they are edible 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@frankiec544]

I thought this was ridiculous until I saw an American put the whole egg in their mouth at once and almost swallow the plastic egg inside ...

[@yaowsers77]

I know it's crazy. I shake my head a lot.

[@charleswise5570]

As an American myself, I think some of the food laws here are ridiculous. That being said. Given our history, and the reasons for owning firearms, is completely different from that of the rest of the world. During both World Wars for example, manly WWII. Americans owning firearms, kept the Japanese Emperor from invading our country. The Second Amendment of The Constitution of the United States gives us the Right to bear arms. This is done, so that we citizens can stand against our own government if we had to. It's manly a reminder to our government that we are in charge. Not the other way around.

[@notdirsale7426]

Horsemeat .when you want try this in Recklinghausen (Ruhrvalley)there is a butcher since 1905 who sells only horsemeat ,with a restaurant in it.The Pferdeklöpse (BURGERS) are great and the Sauerbraten is insane

[@Uhrenfreund.]

Hello Ashton, do you know "Asterix & Obelix" comic's? One of the most famous sayings in these comic's is: "..they are crazy - the Romans"! When I hear your report about the "Children Surprise Eggs", I say: "..they are crazy - the Americans"!!! 😁😁

[@petercathain3326]

Yes, that is what she was implying so good on you for coming to the correct conclusion.

[@Hannah-Maneth]

We actually always gave our american exchange students Ü-Eier when they arrived here in Germany, and when they went back home, they were always sad they couldn't bring any with them 😢. Also, the Kinder Joy is known Germany too. in the mid 2000s they started to sell it here during summer time, and it resurfaces every summer since then 😊

[@GlenHunt]

in Austria I had a lot of time to kill before my return flight to the US, so I walked around the city and stopped at the store. They had Kinder Surprise and I bought five and put them in my carry-on. All the way back, no problems. Then I found out via KZbin that they were not allowed. Not gonna do it again, maybe the best reason is that I'm trying to move to Germany and will have all of them I want!! And yes, I have seen Kinder Joy...no, just no.

[@marthanewsome6375]

Kinder Surprise's are completely legal here in Australia too. Guess the government considers the children of the US to be stupid or something?

[@berlindude75]

For those who have never tried absinthe, be wary of the typically very high alcohol content (can be up to 80% ABV).

[@martinjunghofer3391]

I can faintly remember the time after WW2, when food was rationed and you could only get it on stamps. If you took horse instead of beef or pork (voluntarily) for the meat stamps, you got double the amount; that made a big difference with the extremely tight quantities! And this horse meat came from the USA, it was shot down by the thousands of prairie horses! Hence my love for horse meat!

[@nickgrazier3373]

Growing up in the UK I’m now 68 but when I was 10 years old the taste of the milk then to the taste now very noticeable. There was a choice of sold bottled milk then, there was sterilised milk and full fat milk (un pasteurised) since then obviously stricter rules emerged because of the TB pathogen, which could be passed to humans from cows I believe. They still brought in milk testing to keep an eye on the herds in the farms. I did have chance to taste the difference and I know which I preferred, definitely the whole unsterilised milk it was glorious. In the uk I believe you can still get milk from the farm and also there are cheeses that are made from unpasteurised milk and sold mostly in specialist cheese shops.

[@TT-oo3qy]

Great video! I didn't know about the Kinder Egg. You don't want to know how many times I brought them back from my grown up kids. I guess they don't get a surprise anymore.

[@bernhardneef7996]

Ashton, congratulations! Very well investigated and superbly explained. Great as usual ;)

[@TypeAshton]

So glad you enjoyed the video!

[@bjornm.1121]

Absinth was prohibited in Germany as well due to the hallucinogen effects which it was believed causing. In the 80's and 90's one could only stumble across absinth in gothic styled bars and clubs, because of it's "magical aura" like some kind of a witch's brewery. But with the ban lifted like 20 yrs ago, it trended pretty quick back like it were before.

[@dodgrile1975]

Now I'd love to hear how many of the 1.2 billion Kinder eggs produced every year have resulted in kids accidentally swallowing the toy and requiring surgery, possibly dying even. Possibly in comparison with the risk per unit sold for other types of food.

[@jennyh4025]

I think the number you are looking for is lower than ten. The only case I could find where a child died was from more than five years ago, a girl accidentally inhaled a part of the toy.

[@wurgel1]

@@jennyh4025 and that is without distiction of WHAT and WHEN it was swallowed. Kinder Eggs come with a warning that they shouldn't be given to children age 0-3. Mainly because, while the yellow internal container isn't really a hazzard, the toy inside can be. But said toy isn't a hazzard in regards to the US law that banns the egg. To get to the toy, you have to extract the container and then extract the toy from the container. Something that isn't possible to do on accident, while eating the chocolate. (Often it takes a lot of effort to actually get the toy out of the capsule, since it is so tightly packed) Raw numbers: 7 reported deaths since 1989. so close to 1 death every 5 years. Mainly from the toys inside the capsule, after seperating it from the edable part.

[@jennyh4025]

@@wurgel1 thanks! Yes, the girl was three and a half and according to the article the toy even had a „don‘t let small children play with this toy unsupervised“ label on the accompanying paper. I know I was very careful with my child and small part toys until they were about a year older.

[@jb.9526]

I looked it up and the United States and India are the only countries that prohibits the sale of horse meat worldwide. But in India it is also the case for beef.

[@Ruteger100]

I understand the chocolate egg thingy, but why the Absinth, Apple jack is far more dangerous and people make and drink that all the time. Horse meat was done this way because people were buying wild horses (wild Herds are still running is the north west) at auction and butchering them instead of raising them. we have so many wild pigs, I don't understand the need to eat horses, or Dogs for that matter.

[@rossiuow]

I listened to a Joe Rogan episode where he had a couple of Québécois chefs as guests, and they said that it’s legal to have horsemeat in Québec. However, it’s banned in rest of Canada because the British royal decree banned the consumption of horse meat. I guess the same is true for other English speaking countries.

[@PalmyraSchwarz]

As usual, very well researched topics. Well, the decline in horsemeat in Germany is largely due to the introduction of the automobile and other non-horse modes of transportation. Horses used to be mainly a tool and there was a lot of horse meat. However, horses have never been bred for better taste. Unlike sheep, for example, there never were "meat horses".

[@chkoha6462]

Hi Dr.Ashton! Totally unrelated to today's video I would like to thank you again for your Freiburg restaurant recommendations from a few weeks back.We went to the Kartoffelhaus and it was a nice evening out with great dishes! Fully packed on a Monday night but worth it. Another place to recommend from our side is Probst Strauße in Staufen...Great views across the vineyards Greetings from Strasbourg!

[@TypeAshton]

So glad you enjoyed and your trip to Freiburg! ❤️

[@pigoff123]

I have been bringing uberaschung to the states for over 20 years. Might be illegal to mail but not in your suitcase.

[@TypeAshton]

You might have been able to get away with it, but that doesn't make it any less illegal to import with your suitcase. Here's the US customs website: www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/importation-advisory-kinder-eggs

[@777rogerf]

In my 20s, raw milk from a Jersey family cow in Carmel Valley, California, restored my biome after it had been destroyed by large amounts of antibiotics for spine surgery. I bounced back quickly after drinking the milk right after milking, filtering, and cooling to 40 degrees F. in the frig.

[@Aktivist1000]

Horse meat is similar to beef, but somehow softer and in any case leaner. Regarding absinth, the cloud-land of the green fairies is surprisingly the Czech republic. Absinth is pretty popular here and the limit value for thujone is not 35 mg but 80, as far I know, maybe even more.

[@howierfs5471]

Hi Ashton, thanks for your warning about Ü-Ei. If you get a chance in a restaurant to order Kaninchen than try and go for it. If its well prepared than it taste very nice. Its less calorie than poultry, rich on protein and vitamine B. Btw, I dont want come to close or run into anger with you, but I love your pronounciation of Vorzugsmilch. I know, you and Jonathan trying hard on speaking german and for that you got my highest respect anyway. Wish you all a nice weekend

[@hape3862]

Just think how many horses there were before the invention of the car. These animals don't live forever, and when they were old or injured, they were no longer usable. It would have been unthinkable then to let all that meat go to waste especially in dire times. But since it was tough, it was more of a poor man's food.

[@dj1rst]

You may be surprised but today there are more horses alive than a hundred years ago. The difference is that the horses were working animals you could see every day in the streets. These days the horses are seen as pets and are normally not used to work anymore. You will find them usually on the meadows these days.

[@hape3862]

@@dj1rst It is estimated that today are at most 60 Million horses alive on earth. Probably far less. 1 Million in Germany today. That is 1 horse for every 80 humans. Are you telling me that this ratio was *lower* 100 years ago???? The US has 4 Million horses today, again a ratio of one horse per 80 humans. I am trying to imagine the Wild West where 79 Cowboys walk and one rides a horse …

[@marcorizzoni9766]

@@hape3862 The human population of today is way bigger than the population of 1-2 centuries ago. Even if the ratio has decreased a lot, the number of people has raised enought to offset it. Also, even in America cowboys were actually a minority. Most of the population was concentrated in the cities in the east coast. The town in the west were mostly still small, because they were NEW and founded only by a bunch of settlers. They needed time to grow in population and reach the numbers of the cities in the original colonies, that had plenty of time to grow. That offsetted the ratio by a significant margin.

[@hape3862]

@@marcorizzoni9766 Here we go: "In 1912, the United States and Russia held the most horses in the world, with the U.S. having the second-highest number. There were an estimated *20 million horses in March 1915* in the United States. But as increased mechanization reduced the need for horses as working animals, populations declined. A USDA census in 1959 showed the horse population had dropped to 4.5 million. Numbers began to rebound somewhat, and by 1968 there were about 7 million horses, mostly used for riding. In *2005* , there were about *9 million horses* ." (Wikipedia) -- Less than half the amount of horses today.

[@wierg]

I'm German and I've never heard about Vorzugsmilch.

[@gudrundietrich2158]

Vorzugsmilch ist gefiltert Rohmilch, die verpackt im Einzelhandel verkauft werden darf. Rohmilch bekommst du nur direkt beim Bauern. Da beide nicht pasteurisiert sind, kann nicht ausgeschlossen werden, dass Keime darin sind, weshalb empfohlen wird, dass immungeschwächte Menschen sie nicht trinken sollen (vorher abkochen). Ich habe noch nie Probleme beim Verzehr von Rohmilch gehabt. Achte auf eine gute und durchgängige Kühlung. Da beide nicht homogenisiert sind, setzt sich das Fett oben ab.

[@adambrody24]

Ich hatte als Kind öfter Adventskalender mit Ü-Eiern. 24 Türchen jeden Tag gefüllt mit einem neuen Überraschungsei, da wird selbst dem größten Schoko-Fan total übel. Ich habe am Ende nicht mehr die Schokolade gegessen, sondern nur noch die Figürchen rausgenommen. 🙊

[@uweinhamburg]

Raw milk? No, and i guess i would not try it as it is pretty fat. Raw milk is there for calves and to make them gain a kilogram per day! Horsemeat? Yes, both in the form of sausages and roast - too lean for me and always a tiny bit too sweet. Absinth? No, but i would try it. Kinder Surprise? Of course - there are much better chocolates out there Weirdest stuff i've tried was crocodile (quite nice if i remember it right) and fried insects in the form of grubs which were a bit like peanut-butter-flavored puffed maize. After two beers you would not taste any difference 😉😂

[@hypatian9093]

- Some farms in Northern Germany have shops with "electrical cows" where you can fill bottles with raw milk (and yes, there is a big sign telling you to boil it). - horse meat.. problem in my eyes is that horses are not raised for being slaughtered and while there are restrictions on use of antibiotica and other substances, I fear that they aren't really controlled. I love it, though, especially for Sauerbraten. - Überraschungseier: friends of mine "dismantled" the eggs, then imported chocolate + yellow container + wrapping separately to the US and re-assembled it to gift it to their young relatives ;)

[@pkorobase]

When i was a child, end of the sixties, we lived in the rural area of the Sauerland. We lived near to farms, they were neighbors. Apart from the heavy smells quite often, we had the oppotunity to go and get fresh milk there any day. We got 3 Liters every day, sometimes more, in white milk cans. Thats why my brother and sisters usually only drank milk at home, we didnt have soft drinks. sometimes it was strange when we visited relatives, and they didnt have milk to drink, or when we got visitors, and we didnt have any cola or fanta. That milk was very heavy, only the cream was taken away, so it usually had 4 to 5 % fat, and it looked really yellow. It also got sour when left standing in the open longer than a day. But that rarely happened, we drank it before that. ;)

[@terjeoseberg990]

My grandmother made a porridge that required raw milk in the recipe. She had to buy milk directly from the farmer to make it.

[@Pucinja1708]

Yes but she heated raw milk when she cooked porridge . We also have raw milk at home, when I cook porridge for my kids I also first heating and no one dead 😅

[@helloweener2007]

As I understand the FDA act. You can't have a non-edible part consealed by a edible part. So yes, the diffrences with they Kinder Joy is that the toy is not inside the chocolate.

[@gregcoree2]

kinder eggs are also super popular here in France. Regarding the ban of non edible things embedded in food, how do US do with peaches and their big fruit stone ?

[@puellanivis]

These sorts of things are exempted because the non-nutritive element is a natural part of the fruit. But as I mentioned elsewhere, lollypops other things on a stick had to get an exception to this non-nutritive ban. 🙃

[@gregcoree2]

I was joking to underline the bit of absurdity in this otherwise extremely liberal country. My kids are 6 now but when they were babies, I was a rather stressed dad, but I never considered kinder eggs dangerous.

[@stephaniemiersch]

Kinder Surprise totally legal in Canada! Woohoo!

[@stefanberndt3312]

Horsemeat is very tasty. You even got Horsemeat sausages at some supermarkets.

[@karlmasutra6691]

Hello Ashton, maybe meanwhile you know it allready that in german "v" is spoken most of the time like "f". but of course every rule in german has an exeption....🤣

[@hglundahl]

4:10 And where I grew up (Swedish parts), I actually had a race course pretty close by. Obviously a horse that's winning no more races, unless it's used for breeding, and isn't the favourite horse of some girl (or more rarely boy) at a riding school has a fairly good chance or high risk to end up on someone's table. "Salt meat" = usually horse meat. The polite term is salt meat and the crewd term is "Solvalla" (after a race course, not the one close by, but one more known). I bet quite a few girls over the country will like "salt meat" but would be horrified and feel nearly like cannibals if they heard the term "Solvalla" ... a comic book about writing detective novels (by a Swede) featured a detective novel, where the victim was a sausage man, and the pertetrator turned out to be a girl who had had her horse slaughtered and was horrified to find out the sausages of the sausage man contained ... horse meat.

[@RationalCommerce]

A delicious food made from slightly soured raw milk in the Baden region is Bibiliskäs. Serve with salt, pepper, and chives. Be sure to try.

[@rapsack7058]

Horse filete is super tasty :))

[@Richard_GIS]

6:23 You can find horse meat in Vienna Austria, as there is a traditional style of Leberkäse available

[@hans-dieternichau5467]

Hallo Superfamilie! Das Video zeigt Mal wieder andere Länder andere Sitten! Gut vorgetragen und lustig wie immer ! Pferdefleisch ist nicht Jedermanns Geschmack ,man muss es ja aber auch nicht Essen ,andere Länder Essen auch Sachen die wir uns hier in Deutschland nicht vorstellen können ! Mach weiter so freue mich auf die kommenden Videos ! Grüsse auch an den Rest der Familie ! 😎😎

[@puellanivis]

RE: the horse meat, there was a big scandal here in the EU where a bunch of processed foods were found to not contain the meat that they were labeled to contain. In particular, the US reported a lot about a particular product that contained horse meat that was sold in the UK. The US of course portrayed this as “this is what you get, _horse meat_” but all the portrayals here were pretty clear: this was a labelling issue, not so much a horse meat issue.

[@puellanivis]

@@urlauburlaub2222 I’m not sure I can agree with this. In many US states the consumption of horse meat is actually illegal, and in California via California Proposition 6 (1998) made the slaughter of horses for human consumption a misdemeanor. I do not know of anywhere in Germany, where horse slaughter for human consumption is a criminal act. We are considering two vastly different worlds here, where in Germany horse meat is acceptable but must be declared (similar to how the label “Wienerschnitzel” must be made of Veal), while in the USA it is _actually_ illegal in some states to butcher or serve, and regardless of legality viewed as extremely taboo. Again, I repeat the argument: in the EU the 2013 meat adulteration scandal was about _labeling_ (as you say, to stop the “lowering” of food quality), however in the USA (where I lived at the time) it was reported in the media as “omg, ewww, they were using horse meat!”

[@gwahli9620]

Mislabeling was only one part of the "My Little Pony" lasagna. They had used horse meat that was not legal for human consumption. Pet animals can get treated will all kinds of drugs which are not permitted for animals whose meat is intended for human consumption.

[@puellanivis]

@@gwahli9620 It was not _pet animals_ it was the potential of sport horses, and in particular horse meat from the USA, where up to 15% of horses are former race horses. Few carcasses in the EU were ever found to have been contaminated with “bute” and only one product found a 4 ppb (parts per BILLION) contamination. An estimate was 500-600 burgers of 100% horse meat to get a therapeutic does of bute.

[@bazoo513]

Over here (Croatia) raw milk is sold only from vending machines, where it may spend only 24 hours. Every batch is tested by simple enzymatic tests, ant more thorow analysis is done weekly. There is no better milk.

[@caccioman]

30 years ago we got our milk from the local farmer next door in a milk churn. I am pretty sure it was Rohmilch. I cant remember any problems.

[@ingobohn]

When I was a young boy, every evening I walked across our street with a milk jug to pick up 1 or 1,5 L of fresh raw milk from our neighbor (cow farmer). We only used that kind of milk all day (storing it in the fridge of course). The milk was directly milked from the cowss' udder in the cowshed. I could watch the milking - either done manually or mechanized - while waiting for my milk. It was simply filtered through a paper filter, and that's it. When I later left my village and had to buy for the first time some milk in a store (not at a farm), I was surprised that only cooked or pasteurized was available.

[@AleaumeAnders]

Fun fact: horses were the second animal we domesticated after the wolf/dog. And their first "job" was NOT for riding (given that horses were much to weak for that prior to selective breeding), but rather for milk and meat. And for many millenia before that, wild horses were a staple of human consumption.

[@bigernie9433]

Considering the significant number of Italians who emigrated to the US, I find it somewhat surprising that they did not take their horsemeat traditions across the Atlantic. Absinthe was illegal in the EU as well before it became legal again rather recently (1998)

[@puellanivis]

There are quite a lot of pizza places that offer horse meat on a pizza here in Germany. I know I have tried it. But it’s just kind of shreds of the meet, and not particularly exciting in any way.

[@KJ-md2wj]

Vincent van Gogh was very fond of absinthe in the days when it's consumption was still dangerous. The disproportional fine for ONE Kinderei shows what is wrong with the American judicial system.

[@opaolaf7297]

In Germany we have some special horse butchers and you can buy grilled horse sausages on our X-Mas market.

[@alienrat-z3g]

My grandparents occasionally eat horse meat sausages or meatballs at a horse butcher in a neighbouring town. Thus I've tried it too when they took me with them.

[@pebear]

My Dad used to own a Meat Market, butcher shop back in the 70's. He told me that if you sold Horse Meat you could not sell any Beef. The reason was, there was no way to tell the difference between beef and horse meat.

[@whatsname2649]

I assume other countries have equally wacky laws on the books, but I know about a number of laws that are still on the books.you touched on several. Quite often they are antiquated. Some were stupid at the time of ratification & still are, others are designed to squash competition, such as the milk laws. We need prescriptions from a board licensed physician, not so in other countries. The more I learn about the rest of the world the less I buy into " land of the free."

[@TypeAshton]

Its interesting for sure. I think the one that personally surprised me the most was the regulation on Absinthe. Especially how it was banned so long after prohibition was recinded.

[@Itama22]

I've been to a medieval market here in germany and they had pony riding for kids right next to a horse meat vendor 😂

[@BonFire71]

in a region about 50Km east of Cologne called Bergisches Land are still a few restaurants that offer the traditional Rheinischer Sauerbraten with horse meat and raisins