What if there was a side quest where the party encounters a minotaur on the run from a small town that are struggling with food and are attempting to eat the minotaur. 

Would a minotaur taste like a person or a cow ? 

Is it considered cannibalism?

Could you make villains that are minotaur farmers or other related things to the more beastial races. 

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food so unless it's a Minotaur town it wouldn't be considered as such.

The taste of creatures is not something defined much in the game so your guess is as good as mine. I'd say it taste like beef.

DMs can make villains they want, Minotaur farmer could be.

While cannibalism technically only refers to eating one's own species, in fantasy and sci-fi any being with enough intelligence to have a language is typically considered close enough to cannibalism to give most people pause.  Especially if the being in question is a humanoid (in appearance, not the monster type).

As far as flavor goes, minotaurs may look bovine, but they're predators (omnivores in the case of PC minotaurs).  That means that their meat is likely to have a strong, gamey flavor like a big cat.

I'd say not great cat, but something closer to moose, or maybe the wild yak or similar undomesticated bovine.

Worse than that.  Predatory mammals do not taste good.

I don’t think cannibalism is the right word but it has to be pretty morally questionable to eat the body and flesh of a sentient Race within the world of D&D.  You can argue that they are monsters and be okay with putting their heads on spikes or whatever, no issue, but eating it?  That’s a whole ‘nother bag.  Might as well start defending humans hunting and eating elves.

Yeah, eating sentients is generally a major taboo. Plus if we're talking the Monstrosity minotaurs as opposed to the PC race ones, there's the fact that they're originally spawned from dark and typically demonic magic per the basic lore, and that as rule does not improve the flavor.

Irregardless of your decision on the moral quandary, I really feel there should be some kind of potential disease associated with eating a Minotaur.  No need to even eat the brain, it just nasty.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Yeah, eating sentients is generally a major taboo. Plus if we're talking the Monstrosity minotaurs as opposed to the PC race ones, there's the fact that they're originally spawned from dark and typically demonic magic per the basic lore, and that as rule does not improve the flavor.

 Sounds like a "good" time and place to introduce some mutations like the warp effects of Warhammer, but maybe that's even the reason for humans hunting Minotaurs in the first place.

Quote from Beardsinger >>

Humans taste of Pork. That’s why we are referred to as long pork. That said the average human is terrible at understanding flavours which is why you will hear people say something tastes of chicken all the time.

 That and it turns out that chicken broth or chicken stock is used in a lot of food preparation.

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food so unless it's a Minotaur town it wouldn't be considered as such.

 It's important to note that this word comes from a world where we believe we are the only sentient species. If we had a society of multiple species, or multiple species had separate civilizations on our planet, we'd absolutely have a taboo on eating them. As it is most people actively cringe at the idea of eating a dolphin or a whale or an elephant or even a dog or cat. Now imagine that those animals could actively plead for their lives in a language you have both learned.

Any fantasy society even loosely based on our own is going to have rules against eating sentient species. It's just a baseline level of empathy required to keep a civilization from falling apart. If you wanted to make it work you'd need to have a major reason, like blood feuds between groups or a very strong and controlling religious authority behind the practice.

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food so unless it's a Minotaur town it wouldn't be considered as such.

 It's important to note that this word comes from a world where we believe we are the only sentient species. If we had a society of multiple species, or multiple species had separate civilizations on our planet, we'd absolutely have a taboo on eating them. As it is most people actively cringe at the idea of eating a dolphin or a whale or an elephant or even a dog or cat. Now imagine that those animals could actively plead for their lives in a language you have both learned.

Any fantasy society even loosely based on our own is going to have rules against eating sentient species. It's just a baseline level of empathy required to keep a civilization from falling apart. If you wanted to make it work you'd need to have a major reason, like blood feuds between groups or a very strong and controlling religious authority behind the practice.

 Cannibalism is not eating sentient creature thought, it's same-species eating. Many animals without human intellicence are known to practice cannibalism, such as lions, chimpanzee, hippopotamus, hamsters, paying mantis, polar bears and some even type spiders and toads among others.

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Any fantasy society even loosely based on our own is going to have rules against eating sentient species. It's just a baseline level of empathy required to keep a civilization from falling apart. If you wanted to make it work you'd need to have a major reason, like blood feuds between groups or a very strong and controlling religious authority behind the practice.

 There's a lot of cultures who are known for having consumed at least the heart of their enemies in the past. So it's probably not only about civiilisation, but the level of civilisation, and how much symbolic ritualism is baked into it.

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food so unless it's a Minotaur town it wouldn't be considered as such.

 It's important to note that this word comes from a world where we believe we are the only sentient species. If we had a society of multiple species, or multiple species had separate civilizations on our planet, we'd absolutely have a taboo on eating them. As it is most people actively cringe at the idea of eating a dolphin or a whale or an elephant or even a dog or cat. Now imagine that those animals could actively plead for their lives in a language you have both learned.

Any fantasy society even loosely based on our own is going to have rules against eating sentient species. It's just a baseline level of empathy required to keep a civilization from falling apart. If you wanted to make it work you'd need to have a major reason, like blood feuds between groups or a very strong and controlling religious authority behind the practice.

 Cannibalism is not eating sentient creature thought, it's same-species eating. Many animals without human intellicence are known to practice cannibalism, such as lions, chimpanzee, hippopotamus, hamsters, paying mantis, polar bears and some even type spiders and toads among others.

 That’s really not their point though.  I think everyone understands that IRL, eating a Minotaur wouldn’t technically count as cannibalism, but it would be past the point of morally questionable to eat another sentient species.  And so language and laws would evolve to close that loophole in logic, even if it meant extending the umbrella of cannibalism past it’s dictionary definition, due to lack of a better word.

Quote from Varek_Cellarbrew >>

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Any fantasy society even loosely based on our own is going to have rules against eating sentient species. It's just a baseline level of empathy required to keep a civilization from falling apart. If you wanted to make it work you'd need to have a major reason, like blood feuds between groups or a very strong and controlling religious authority behind the practice.

 There's a lot of cultures who are known for having consumed at least the heart of their enemies in the past. So it's probably not only about civiilisation, but the level of civilisation, and how much symbolic ritualism is baked into it.

 Not nearly as many as was previously believed: European explorers were prepped to accuse pretty much every non-European culture of being cannibalistic, and early anthropologists mistook damage caused to corpses from ancient civilizations during funeral rites as having been due to the bodies being butchered for meat.  In truth, there are very few societies that it's actually been confirmed practiced cannibalism on a cultural level.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Quote from Beardsinger >>

Humans taste of Pork. That’s why we are referred to as long pork. That said the average human is terrible at understanding flavours which is why you will hear people say something tastes of chicken all the time.

 That and it turns out that chicken broth or chicken stock is used in a lot of food preparation.

Per applications of the chicken and egg principle and Soylent Green irony, I can say "chicken broth is people, it's people!" but I have to wear my Ascot of Charlton Heston emulation to get advantage on performance.

To the OP, I wonder if the whole discussion is moot unless you're figuring the PCs may want a sample on a toothpick.  If the minotaur is really a delicacy the townsfolk have experience with, they're likely not going to be screaming for it's wild bore flavor notes.  Rather, they'll just describe it as succulent, tender, a greasy pleasure or whatever but leave it as "if you haven't hadn't had minotaur, you don't know" to describe the communal zeal.  No delicacy is described in terms of an easy analog, that ruins the whole strength of "standing on its own".  Even if the PCs do taste it, you needn't describe it by analogy to familiar food stuffs.  I'd work in adjectives that play with the moral as well.  Like, "the tenderness of the meat is undercut by your memory of seeing [minotaur name] alive in abject terror of his pursuers.  Or "it's tough, almost like [insert minotaur name] is still resisting being treated as food." Etc.

Quote from Varek_Cellarbrew >>

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Any fantasy society even loosely based on our own is going to have rules against eating sentient species. It's just a baseline level of empathy required to keep a civilization from falling apart. If you wanted to make it work you'd need to have a major reason, like blood feuds between groups or a very strong and controlling religious authority behind the practice.

 There's a lot of cultures who are known for having consumed at least the heart of their enemies in the past. So it's probably not only about civiilisation, but the level of civilisation, and how much symbolic ritualism is baked into it.

 That's what I was referring to in my last sentence. Enemies = blood feuds, symbolic ritualism = controlling religious authority. Either way, you need a major cultural force to overcome the default state of "don't eat things that you can converse with."

Lets skip the eating part, seems like the town folks are planning on murdering the Minotaur so my PC would have an issue with that. :)