Horse Meat: Sourcing, Preparing, Eating

[Ling]

^I hope they were kind thoughts. I had to eat a very rare steak for breakfast after seeing your pictures, Lee.

[shelora]

The meal sounded fantastic!!! I thought of you all sitting there being pampered and ever so adventurous eating horse. True culinary adventurers. I can hardly wait for my turn at the post!

I was unable to open any photographs Lee, where are they?

S

[Daddy-A]

The meal sounded fantastic!!! I thought of you all sitting there being pampered and ever so adventurous eating horse. True culinary adventurers. I can hardly wait for my turn at the post!

I was unable to open any photographs Lee, where are they?

S

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I'll step in for Lee ...

The full gallery:

Horse Meat Dinner at Bis Moreno

Be sure you put a towel down on the keyboard first!!

A.

[Vancouver Lee]

The meal sounded fantastic!!! I thought of you all sitting there being pampered and ever so adventurous eating horse. True culinary adventurers. I can hardly wait for my turn at the post!

I was unable to open any photographs Lee, where are they?

S

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I'll step in for Lee ...

The full gallery:

Horse Meat Dinner at Bis Moreno

Be sure you put a towel down on the keyboard first!!

A.

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Thanks, Arne!

You can also click here for an off-site hosted photo...

Edited March 23, 2005 by Vancouver Lee (log)

[shelora]

Hey, thanks. Great photos. Was that a black truffle sauce served with the tenderloin?

Did you pair an Italian Venetto wine with it?

s

[appreciator]

As delicious as that meat looks (and this coming from a former vegetarian, it looks pretty damn good ), I still can't get past the fact that it's horse meat!?!? (I know that's obvious )

Glad to hear that you had a great meal Lee and that there are good sources of horsemeat in Vancouver for those who are interested.

This topic has got me thinking about food aversions I maintain, and the legitimacy they have. Perhaps I'll see if there's a topic about this in the General Food section. Questioning one's choices is a good thing IMO.

[Vancouver Lee]

Hey, thanks. Great photos. Was that a black truffle sauce served with the tenderloin?

Did you pair an Italian Venetto wine with it?

s

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Yes and Yes. I don't recall the exact wine, but I think Eric was going to email Moreno for the details. I think Moreno said the winery only produces 50,000 cases a year. It was lovely.

[Vancouver Lee]

This topic has got me thinking about food aversions I maintain, and the legitimacy they have.  Perhaps I'll see if there's a topic about this in the General Food section.  Questioning one's choices is a good thing IMO.

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I totally agree, Appreciator. My original reaction to horse meat was "yuck", but I forced myself to put that behind me and try it. I'm sooooo glad I did.

[canucklehead]

fileto di cavello

Breakfast at the Canucklehead household.

In the best tradition of Ling style eating - my brother and I had horsesteak for breakfast. Thanks to Vancouver Lee's recommendation - I went down to Columbus meat and saw that they had 'cavello' for sale.

The butchershop is excellent - they had lots of old school stuff for sale (beef hearts, sausages, etc...) We regarded as the carpet baggers that we were. The butchers are not especially friendly - I suspect that with repeat visits that could change. But you know what - I was'nt there to make friends. These guys clearly know what they are doing - and that's good enought for me.

Trying to be discreet, we pointed to our target and asked - what's that?.

Butcher pointing to something else: that's beef steak - it's on special.

Us: No - we're curious about the horse (in a well - hoarse whisper).

Butcher: What!? You want pork? Of course we have pork.

Us: No - HORSE.

Lady beside: Horse!? .... oh.....it's Delicous!

So all taboo's broken. We bought the rest of their filet. Not sure if they sell any other cuts.

This morning - seared the steaks in butter and salt and pepper. Sliced and served with some leftover bearnaise that we had from leg of lamb night (only in an egullet person's house I think would you have left over bearnaise). That is why the sauce is broken slightly - not reheated successfully.

So how was the steak? OH IT WAS SOOO GOOOD. Soft buttery - but with a lot of flavor. Not gamey - more like a super tender hanger steak (perhaps a new HSG specialty?). I got over my squeemishness pretty quickly. Served it very rare - not sure how it would take further cooking - so played it safe, even though I am more of a med-rare person myself.

Plate full of steak set me back about $13 - definitely worth it if you are in the mood for something special.

[Ling]

^Ohhhhh man.....I have to print out a map and get to Columbus Meats! I don't think I have time until Monday though...so I'll have to wait. (Dammit Lee, I had eggs for breakfast today! Your breakfast looks amazing; why didn't you invite me over?!!! )

[Vancouver Lee]

Wow, Lee, that looks good. I submit that horse meat for breakfast is more a sign of a died-in-the-wool eGulleter than having leftover bearnaise!

We tried to make it over the Columbus today, but somehow we were sucked of course by the lure of pizza from Da Francesco's!

Edited March 26, 2005 by Vancouver Lee (log)

[Ling]

Oh my--just had the horse meat from Columbus for dinner (along with their regular sausages and their spicy ones--the spicy ones are so delicious!) I was lazy, so I just served it rare with salt and pepper, but tomorrow I'll do a garlic/anchovy/olive oil thing over the meat.

The horse meat smells a little gamey when it's cooking, but the gaminess is virtually undetectable once it's cooked. The meat just falls apart in your mouth--you know how steak can be a little chewy if you serve it blue rare? Horse meat is not chewy at all....just soft and tender.

[scordelia]

Which bistros in Toronto Hodge-podge ? I'd be interested in trying them out... We used to eat horse meat in Montreal when I was growing up, but it was mostly stewed....

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I've also not seen it in the U.S.--Is it a legislated problem,or perceived lack of interest?

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Actually, horse slaughter is legal in the US (for now). Mostly it is the wild mustang herds and they are exported to Japan and Europe. I don't think Americans are interested. I don't know why. My husband and had horse in Stra (near Padua) and it was delish! It was a kind of stew with a lovely sauce served over polenta.

Sophie

[chefzadi]

I wonder why this topic doesn't get folks riled up as much as foie gras?

Maybe we need a celebrity chef food fight?

[scordelia]

I wonder why this topic doesn't get folks riled up as much as foie gras?

Maybe we need a celebrity chef food fight?

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It is getting the PETA people riled up. There has been some lobbying of late to make horse slaughter illegal period. And then there is another bambi camp who equate eating horse with eating your dog.

[chefzadi]

The PETA folks have a different argument for this one than the foie gras one. The foie gras argument is all about how the ducks are raised. The horse argument since the horsese are free range is about painting a portrait of them as pets. Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of eating pets, although most Americans do not own horses.

I recall that Native Americans who had horses consumed horse meat. I know someone here will correct me if I'm wrong.

This article from science world.

Many ranchers and animal-welfare advocates agree that the adopt-a-horse program, which has placed at least 185,000 horses, is not a cure-all. "The real problem is too much reproduction," Kirkpatrick says. Wild horses reproduce at a rate of about 20 percent a year their population can double every three to four years. "Removing horses speeds up reproduction in the horses you leave behind," Kirkpatrick says. It's a natural phenomenon called compensatory reproduction--remaining animals increase reproduction in response to increased food and habitat availability

note animal welfare vs animal rights.

[chardan]

How do you like your horse steaks?

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I had boiled horsemeat once in Lucca, Italy. Not bad!

Here in Southern Oregon, we've got plenty of horses,

but nobody that I know of eats them. Bummer.

[azurenath]

I've had horse twice before. Once in Belgium, as what was funnily enough called a "fil americainfil americain" essentially raw chopped steak tartare eaten with thin crisp french fries--delicious.

Also, this summer in Lecce, Italy, we bought some thinkly sliced horsemeat steaks, patted them with flour, and cooked them in olive oil, then ate them on pane di matera (pugiese bread) with rucola (arugula). Lots of flavor, strong texture--divine.

I'd definitely do it again.

[canucklehead]

Just in case you guys were curious I am attaching the Vancouver thread on horse as food.

Horse Meat in Vancouver Start on the second page of the post for pictures and personal experiences.

I hope the link works. As a person who recently got to try it - it was goooooood.

Edited April 13, 2005 by canucklehead (log)

[Ling]

I bought horse meat at Columbus Meats in Vancouver. I'll admit to feeling squeamish when I first heard (a few years ago) that horse meat was regularly consumed in other areas of the world, but the taste is just fantastic. So buttery and soft...definitely better than any beef I've eaten.

[Susan G]

I agree with Ling: The texture is lovely and so is the taste.

I've eaten it in Sardinia - where it's a dish they're especially proud of - and in Basel, Switzerland, where the butcher shop had horsemeat next to beef and pork.

Never seen it sold in the USA.

I understand people who are upset over this issue.......I'd be riled if we were discussing catmeat. But I've never bonded with a horse, so it's sinews and tendons to me......

[Saborosa]

Oh, and the dried curred horse meat is ten times better the prosciutto..

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We have that here in Spain - cecina de caballo. Well, I've only seen it here in Barcelona but I think it's generally made in Castilla y Leon where the most famous cecinas - cured (salted, smoked and air-dried) meats - are made. They also used to make it from donkey meat. Maybe they still do but I've never seen it. The horse cecina is becoming quite hard to find. I've had it in a great little charcuteria off the Rambla called Arantxa (C/Tallers 5) but they don't often have it in stock. I've given it to a couple of people without telling them what it is and though they haven't become immediate fans, they haven't spit it out or thrown up either. I rather like it - it tastes of hay to me! (And before you ask, no I haven't 'eaten' hay, but I've smelled it and chewed on straw!) Anyway, it's quite a light dry flavour.

There's a horse butcher at the edge of the Boqueria market in Barcelona. It's a shop rather than a stall, right at the back on the right if you're facing away from the Rambla. They have lots of posters of happy horses frolicking in fields with speech bubbles coming out of their mouths saying 'Protect horses, eat me' or something like that (I may exaggerate!).

There's a lot of this anthropomorphic display of animals expressing joy and/or complicity in their consumption - lots of pigs dressed as butchers chopping up a cousin, etc. Actually, you used to see it a lot in the UK when there were still proper butchers shops, before everything became shrink-wrapped and unrecognisable as ever being a living thing. Part of the increasing and increasingly worrying alienation between the majority of the western world and their food supply. But that's another thread...

[StevenC]

I've been living in Florence for about nine months now, and during that time and over many previous trips to Italy I've developed quite a liking for horse meat. It is very easy to find horse meat in the Veneto, especially in Verona, where I once put together an all-horse meal for myself from an à la carte menu. (Shredded dried horse meat over rocket with olive oil, black pepper and pecorino as an antipasto; gnocchi in horse ragù as a primo; and a grilled horse filet with roasted potatoes for a secondo... Sorry, no horse dessert). I've also seen horse, pony and donkey in the markets and on menus in Piemonte, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardia. I buy horse meat every so often here in Florence, although it seems not to be as common in Tuscany as it is north of the Apennines.

I find the meat has a richer, somewhat sweeter flavor than beef. Depending on whether the horse was wild or farm-raised, the meat can also have a delicious gamey edge. Pony and donkey have slightly different tastes and textures. I had a tagliata di puledro (pony) last month in Vicenza that reminded me of veal. A couple of years ago I ordered a stracotto d'asino (donkey stew) in Mantova. The aromas were luscious, but I found the meat a little dry.

[Mooshmouse]

Wanted to give Vancouver Lee props for the outstanding appetizer that he prepared on Saturday evening.

And here's Lee's description of the preparation process:

The appetizer was seared horse tenderloin over arugula and cherry tomatoes.  I marinated the meat in a splash of red wine (cabernet) with onions, carrots, celery, sage and a bay leaf for 7 hours, then just before cooked I added fresh-ground salt and pepper directly to each steak. I seared them in butter for about 2-3 minutes per side and sliced them thin to serve.  I drizzled the arugula and cherry tomaotes with some EVOO and balsamic vinegar prior to topping it with slices of the meat.

My photograph doesn't even come close to doing this dish justice. Though I'm a fairly adventurous eater, I never imagined that I could overcome the squick factor to try horse meat. Boy, was I ever glad I took the leap. The horse tenderloin was excellent. Leaner, sweeter and more tender than I expected it to be. Thanks to you, Lee, Ian and I are both officially converted. Delicious.

[canucklehead]

Just to let everyone know - Bis Mereno will prepare horse if you give them a couple days notice. I spoke to Chef Miotto - and he would like a minimum of two people order it so that he can get properly sized roast.

Unfortunately - my dinner companions would rather have a pasta tasting menu. So - I don't want the kitchen to have to jump through too many hoops. They were very willing to try to accomodate us - but since I am not a big drinker - I did not feel it was fair.

Still - I am looking forward to trying cavello at Bis. It will only taste sweeter for the wait. All I need are brave companions on this quest...