Horse Meat: Sourcing, Preparing, Eating

[Sea Urchin Ragout]

A traditional Belgian meal my gran used to cook me at least once every two weeks was horse steaks, mash and salsifis en hollandaise.

I have been missing horse meat enormously since emigrating to the UK and on occasion taken a bag of frozen steaks on the plane on my way back from a visit home.

Edited September 29, 2006 by Sea Urchin Ragout (log)

[Saborosa]

Hi

I'm interested in finding out more about horsemeat, specifically in Barcelona and Catalunya, but also Spain generally.

Does anyone here, who lives or has spent any time here, eaten it? Where did you get it from? How was it prepared? Do you know anything about the raising of horses for meat in Spain/Catalunya?

Thanks in advance

[butterfly]

I've had cecina de caballo (from Castilla y León):

http://www.cecinadevillarramiel.com/index.html

[Rogelio]

I know two horse butchers, one in Castellón and the other in Santander. They've been there for ages.

Time ago when the Creutfeld-Jakob cows disease restaurants like La Broche strarted serving horse meat dishes, but haven't seen them for a long time now.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Rogelio (log)

[Dan Ryan]

There's at least one stall selling horse at the Boqueria, and a horse butcher's just outside, near where the uncovered market is.

Saw another horse butcher the other day, but can't remember where...

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of horse. Beats beef for flavour at all price points I reckon. You treat it in exactly the same way. A well-hung horse rump is a fine thing, and makes a magnificent carpaccio. Good stewing from other parts like shin. And once you have a horseburger you'll never go back...

[Saborosa]

Thanks for your replies guys.

I read somewhere else that there's a horse butcher in Barcelona near the Sagrada Familia, perhaps on Rossello and Marina? Can anyone confirm it exists, before I trundle over there? (perezosa, eh?)

I'm a fan too, because of flavour and its high iron, low-fat content. Also, the animals concerned seem to lead a fairly natural, free-range life before being turned into my burgers (at least according to the lady at my local carniceria de caballo). But if anyone knows better...? I've read comments from owners of a horse sanctuary saying that the horse meat trade encourages the neglect of old horses, but I would have thought the opposite – that a starved horse wouldn't fetch you a good price, and it gives a cost-effective way of getting rid of an old horse. But we're talking here about horses that aren't raised for meat. I'm told by horse butchers that the horsemeat they sell is specifically raised for meat and comes from the Pirineos. Anyone have more info?

There seems to be more of a tradition of eating horse in the northern part of Spain - Castilla y Leon, Navarra, Catalaunya. Though Castellon seems to crop up quite a bit, too. Any comments on that, why that might be?

Cheers

[Nathan]

horsemeat is also common in Verona. supposedly, the tradition began after an area battle left a bunch of dead horses.

[Saborosa]

Thanks Nathan. I think horsemeat is generally quite popular in Italy, especially cured in various charcuterie.

I am more particularly interested in the market in Spain, though.

Thanks

[Saborosa]

.. or did you mean gerona?!

[docsconz]

There is a horse meat stall in El Mercado central in Valencia. I don't know anything else about it though.

[butterfly]

When my son had low iron, the doctor here recommended that he eat "carne equina". She said kids who don't like meat tend to like it better. I believe they sell it at El Corte Inglés (and I've seen it at regular carnicerías, too).

[GeordieSteve]

Alcampo are marketing it heavily at the moment too. I usually have a horse steak every week or two. It's very flavoursome for such lean meat.

[John Talbott]

This topic on the France Forum may be of some interest.

[lilsouthernhottie]

I don't know about in Spain, but it's available in quite a few places near Lisboa...at least two that I know of in Seixal...

And *gulp* I didn't know it was horse meat until after I ate it. And liked it.

[Bridgestone]

Horse meat is available at one of the butchers I frequent in Stockholm. It turns out that Swedes eat a decent amount of horse but normally only (salted, smoked and thinly sliced) on sandwiches and/or mixed into sausages. I was curious to try horse in steak form.

I picked up this steak:

I'm not sure how much it weighed but it was probably somewhere around 250 grams. At 28 kronor (or, about 3 dollars), it was absurdly cheap. For perspective, the parking fees and tolls I paid while buying this steak cost more than the steak itself...

I simply salted the meat and put it in a hot pan with plenty of butter.

I like rare beef. I knew I wanted this steak to be rare and had the various preparations of raw horse meat I've seen in my mind as I cooked this steak. In the end, I took it off of the heat about one minute too early. I was also rushed to eat so I didn't let the meat rest enough before I sliced it.

Here's a shot of some slices from the half I let rest properly:

All in all, it was very tasty although disappointingly similar to wet-aged beef. The steak was extremely tender and I was able to taste a hint of sweetness and/or game every now and then. I'm glad to have finally tried horse meat but, as steaks for me are only an occasional splurge, will probably stick to dry-aged beef in the future.

[howardlong]

Folks

It's been a long time.

I had horse fillet at Le Gavroche this lunchtime, it'll be on the dinner specials from tonight apparently but it was offered to me at lunch today so I was hardly going to push back against such an offer. Only unlike some other outlets, it will not be advertised as anything but horse.

And very nice it was too I might say, very much like beef fillet in appearance, a bit more spongy in texture, and a slightly more subtle flavour to the meat itself. It's done with a reduced red wine, pepper and madeira jus, parsnips and tatties.

I just hope if they get found out by the food nazis they don't find beef DNA in the horse fillet.

Cheers, Howard

Edited March 15, 2013 by howardlong (log)

[david goodfellow]

Hi Howard, long time no hear.

Strange but true I was in Knighsbridge last weekend and thought about you

Good to hear Gavroche have had the balls to add horse to their menu. I have not eaten horse (to my knowledge) and would have thought it was a stronger taste than beef. Just shows how easy it can be to form an opinion.

I do hope that its a successful addition to the menu as I would like to try it sometime, especially given the skill in this particular kitchen

[gfweb]

I have no particular trouble with eating horse, if one cares to. That dish looks awfully tasty.

I do worry that contamination of "good" beef with meat from cattle at risk for BSE might well also be occurring if horse can so easily find its way into the beef supply. Horse meat is , after all, detectable. Meat from BSE-at-risk cows would not be.

Is the fate of questionable cows trackable? Do we really know that its been destroyed? Beef is more expensive than horse and there would be economic pressure to use those BSE cows.

Edited March 15, 2013 by gfweb (log)

[howardlong]

Hello David et al.

Well I'm semi-retired (for now!) so I moved out a little, to Chelsea. GR@RHR is my closest restaurant, but it's shut at the moment for refurb although I noticed the hoardings came off yesterday so I would anticipate it reopening in the next few days. From what little I could see from the outside, it looked like not much more than a lick of paint: some areas, especially the loos, really did need it.

But I digress. I'm still dining rather too much than I need to, with retirement hardly helping in that regard, a trend that is sadly increasingly reflected on the old waistline.

New tries in the last week have been Brasserie Chavot (Jay Rayner sat two tables away with a glamorous lady diner) and Ametsa, so there's no holding back. BC definitely a tick, my joke that every dish has pork in it remains true, but the jury's out on Ametsa, although I had a very memorable steak main there.

Murano has pushed way up to the top of my personal list over the past year, up there with Le Gav and 7 Park Place. Biggest disappointment for me recently was the closure of Nahm. I have since booked two trips to Bangkok to the branch there as a result. Dining is an expensive habit. More down-to-Earth, both Racine and Casa Brindisa continue to delight, although Racine has been rather swamped outside over the past couple of years by the appalling l'Opera next door, which has become an over-crowded meat market, spilling out well onto the street, targeting the visiting Middle-Eastern tourist.

Less recently, I couldn't really get on with Nathan Outlaw's place at the Capital after a couple of tries I'm afraid, all a bit bland for my palate, although to be fair those two instances were in the first two days of opening.

Anyway, back to Le Gav. Today Michel was there, as was papa Albert, who was dining, and I had a good old chat with them both. I guess the horse is a tongue-in-cheek thing bearing in mind the recent press. I spoke to Michel's wife Giselle a few weeks ago at dinner, and she was saying how little she saw of hubby. Hardly surprising, he's on the telly every other night and has the decency to still cook in his restaurant. I would say I still see Michel 7/10 times in there, I'd say more often at dinner than lunch, and also more likely during the week then weekends, and as ever he always comes round to chat with the diners.

Regarding the horse, I had it once before in France just to say I'd done it when I was a teenager. Can't remember a great deal about it, but then I wasn't really a foodie back then, or maybe I was, I just didn't know it.

What really grates on me about this current food scandal in Europe is that the source-to-table traceability demanded by recent EU regulation appears to have been little more than a worthless bureaucratic exercise.

And of course we knew that inevitably the announcement yesterday that pork DNA has been found in halal chicken in Westminster school dinners was just going to happen. You couldn't make it up!

According to David Thompson, Nahm London shut because it was proving impossible to source those rarer Thai ingredients that that he demanded for his food in this traceable form, although I have to say I always thought he and Matthew Albert did a darned good job without them anyway.

Cheers, Howard

[Andrew]

I've had horse a few times (knowingly). Always in France and generally in 'cheaper' cafe / bistro type establishments. It's ok, nothing wrong with it but I do prefer the slightly stronger, less sweet, flavour of beef. I have also tried to cook it myself when staying in France and found it sifficult to get right, it's very easy to overcook it so that it is tough.

Andrew

[annabelle]

There is a measure before the state house in Oklahoma to promote the processing of horsemeat for food. I've not kept on top of the debate, but there seem to be few who are against it, there were less than a dozen protesters at the state house last week.

When the matter is resolved, I'll report on the results. I also don't have any problems with horseflesh being used for food, fwiw.

[Broken English]

The Black Hoof here in Toronto has both a horse tartare and horse charcuterie on their menu. The charcuterie is nothing to write home about, but the tartare is great, gamey yet subtle. Definately worth trying if you're at a restaurant with the balls to serve it.

[liuzhou]

I had horse noodles for lunch today. In China.

Here.

[annabelle]

The bill passed the state house today and horse processing for food is now legal in Oklahoma.

[gfweb]

Just so long as they aren't eating Airedales...