Horse entrecote

I frequent a Latin-American butcher in Stockholm. They are pretty unique in these parts and they are my stable suppliers of flank steak, Picanha and El Yacateco sauces. I don't know what I'd do without them.

They also do a brisk business in horse meat.

I've been eyeing the stuff for years as they hand over wrapped packages of bone-in brisket (for stock), house-made chorizo, oxtails and other goodies but never really had the inclination to try the stuff. However, something happened the other day and I picked up a steak. A horse entrecote, to be more precise.

I don't really know if there is a strong Latin/South-American connection to horse or if they've simply cornered a market that no one else really has anymore in Stockholm. Swedes, though, eat plenty of horse.

Swedish kids eat it salted and smoked on sandwiches. It's disguised, however, under the name of "hambugrarekött" (or "Meat from Hamburg", I suppose). Others eat it mixed into sausages. All in all, that makes up for a decent amount of horse meat. In fact, one source claims that Swedes eat more horse meat than lamb and mutton combined (although I'm really thinking that this source is dated).

But I don't know of too many that eat horse in steak form. Today was my day to bite the bullet.

Home from the butcher:



One note on the price: The horse entrecote cost me 28 kronor. That's roughly 3 bucks. Or, to put things in perspective, about 1/10 of the price I normally pay for a dry-aged steak. Heck, I paid more than 28 kronor in parking fees and tolls on the way to the butcher!



I'm really not certain if I got an end of an entrecote/ribeye or a piece of sirloin. The cuts on a horse are probably different enough to throw me off even on a perfect example.

I got some duck fat melted and warm to fry some potatoes in...



... and put the steak in a hot pan:



I like rare-ish beef and I thought that I wanted the horse to be very rare. However (and I'm thinking of you, Cathy2, here!), I probably took this off the heat about 1 minute early. I also got a little rushed and neglected to let the meat rest enough.





I let the other half of the steak rest properly and it looked much better:



It tasted fine. Actually, it was excellent. Perhaps disappointingly, I'd be really, really hard-pressed to tell any difference from wet-aged beef. It was lean and very tender. Every now and then I'd get a slight sweet and/or gamey flavor.

I honestly don't think I'll be a huge horse consumer. I don't eat steaks too terribly often and when I do, I usually go for dry-aged beef. This simply can't compare. However, I'm happy to have tried horse and expanded my horizons a little.

Funny, just today, a bill was introduced amending the Illinois Horse Meat Act to allow horse-processing for human consumption. I tried a stew of horsemeat years ago in Paris - I don't remember much about it, other than that it was very good (rich wine sauce,) but wasn't really different from beef. I've never heard of it prepared any other way than braised, but those look like beautiful steaks.

But then, all your food looks (and tastes) beautiful, Bridgestone! In these trying economic times, I look forward to your recipe for boot leather...

Bridgestone wrote:It tasted fine. Actually, it was excellent. Perhaps disappointingly, I'd be really, really hard-pressed to tell any difference from wet-aged beef. It was lean and very tender. Every now and then I'd get a slight sweet and/or gamey flavor.

Bridgestone,

Gorgeous!

I've had horse in France, but the preparation did not lend itself to detecting nuance of flavor. Wish I had the option to try as lovely a hunk of horseflesh as you picture, unfortunately our lawmakers say neigh.

One aside, instead of potato, though the duck fat fried squares look delectable, I'd have served Sea Biscuit for starch.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:
One aside, instead of potato, though the duck fat fried squares look delectable, I'd have served Sea Biscuit for starch.

Enjoy,
Gary

Hmmm....if that legislation passes, I may have to play with my Derby Day menu...

I'm the farthest thing from being a vegetarian and consider myself adventurous (please pass the bowl of chapulines), but I have to admit that I felt very queasy while reading your post.

If I ever change my mind about horsemeat, though, I'll definitely keep this in mind. Might as well get the full-on experience instead of masking its flavor with a sauce, right?

kanin wrote:Might as well get the full-on experience instead of masking its flavor with a sauce, right?

That was more-or-less my reasoning, kanin.

Thanks Gary and Mhays for the grins!

That looks exactly like the cut of horse I had (a steak) in Geneva one time. It tasted fine. I wouldn't have known it was horse if they didn't tell me. Tasted kind of like a steak you'd get from Jewel(s). (hmmm.)

I wonder where the horsemeat comes from in the EU. I would not want to be eating old racehorses loaded with drugs.

teatpuller wrote:I wonder where the horsemeat comes from in the EU. I would not want to be eating old racehorses loaded with drugs.

Interesting you'd mention that teatpuller as that's one of the reasons I probably won't be a huge horse consumer.

From the little I've managed to find, the slaughtering of horses and selling of horse meat seems to fly slightly under the radar that other types of meat are inspected by. Sweden doesn't consume enough horse to support a truly local market so horse sold in Sweden can come from just about anywhere (inside and outside the EU). There is a slight risk that meat from, for example old racehorses can be sold for consumption.

For me, that's about as attractive as eating beef that's been industrially raised, fattened on a high-density feed lot and slaughtered unneccesarily stressfully. As I can easily find beef in Sweden that's been raised under different conditions, I'll probably stick to that.

Fascinating stuff, and I'm encouraged by the news that we may be able to buy horsemeat in Illinois. My guess is that a lot of decent meat is going to waste, though as suggested by kanin, I think horsemeat is going to be tough to sell to Americans (comment we should be ready to hear, "Flicka?").

"Stable of suppliers"? You kill.

Hammond

Not sure about other parts of Latin America, but the erstwhile Cuban staple "tasajo" was traditionally salted, very dry (like jerky) horsemeat. The main prep is to reconstitute it, similar to bacalao, then simmer it in a creole sauce. The end product is similar to the beef dish ropa vieja. Tasajo is mostsly beef these days. In fact, I have not seen or heard of horse tasajo for many years.

David Hammond wrote:Fascinating stuff, and I'm encouraged by the news that we may be able to buy horsemeat in Illinois. My guess is that a lot of decent meat is going to waste, though as suggested by kanin, I think horsemeat is going to be tough to sell to Americans (comment we should be ready to hear, "Flicka?").

"Stable of suppliers"? You kill.

Hammond

David,

I was under the impression that the laws that are under consideration would just allow the two horse processing plants to re-open in Illinois. This would allow for the processing of the animals, for consumption, but USDA regulations would not allow the product to be sold in the US. Instead, the products would be exported to Asia and Europe just as they were before the facilities were shut down when the laws went into effect.

Flip

There´s traif and then there´s TRAIF. Somehow I just can´t bring myself to think about eating horse. Now, I eat pork, shrimp, lobster and all manner of scaleless seafood but horse....just can´t bring myself to think about it. Funny how our culture gets in the way of our food choices.

At age nine or ten, after years of collecting horse statue thingees made of plastic, reading EVERY horse book in the school library including all in the Black Stallion series, having studied the poster on my doorway until I could name all breeds of horses and their characteristics, I landed my biggest childhood dream: my own pony. Two, to be correct: a mare and her 2 month old foal.

Three weeks later, I accidentally killed the mare by letting her eat too much corn fodder; she foundered and I wasn't strong enough to keep her upright to help her walk it off (which is what a frantic call to the vet told me to do.). The foal, however, was mine to raise.

I bottle fed her, I walked her, groomed her, and dreamt of the day I could ride her. Of course, by the time she was old enough, I was too heavy, but I didn't know that would happen at the time. I practically lived in the barn with her, lovingly stroking her nose, feeding her lumps of sugar (snuck from the house because my parents said it wasn't good for her teeth...) and pieces of carrot. Every bit of guilt I had over killing her mother, I translated into the loving care of her, from a ten year old perspective, of course. I went on long walks in the late evening with her and my grandfather during that long cold winter, my grandfather teaching me the constellations. I cried on her soft fur when I was sad. She was my best friend, just like Flicka.

While I was raised in a farming area and we slaughtered geese, ducks, and pigs that lived with us, the pony thing put animals in a completely different perspective. I had no problem watching my grandfather kill those mean geese...but a pony? A horse?????

I didn't read this with queasiness....just the knowledge that while I was willing to try a brain taco, I wasn't about to eat that steak upthread.

ViewsAskew wrote:At age nine or ten, after years of collecting horse statue thingees made of plastic, reading EVERY horse book in the school library including all in the Black Stallion series, having studied the poster on my doorway until I could name all breeds of horses and their characteristics, I landed my biggest childhood dream: my own pony. Two, to be correct: a mare and her 2 month old foal.

Three weeks later, I accidentally killed the mare by letting her eat too much corn fodder; she foundered and I wasn't strong enough to keep her upright to help her walk it off (which is what a frantic call to the vet told me to do.). The foal, however, was mine to raise.

I bottle fed her, I walked her, groomed her, and dreamt of the day I could ride her. Of course, by the time she was old enough, I was too heavy, but I didn't know that would happen at the time. I practically lived in the barn with her, lovingly stroking her nose, feeding her lumps of sugar (snuck from the house because my parents said it wasn't good for her teeth...) and pieces of carrot. Every bit of guilt I had over killing her mother, I translated into the loving care of her, from a ten year old perspective, of course. I went on long walks in the late evening with her and my grandfather during that long cold winter, my grandfather teaching me the constellations. I cried on her soft fur when I was sad. She was my best friend, just like Flicka.

While I was raised in a farming area and we slaughtered geese, ducks, and pigs that lived with us, the pony thing put animals in a completely different perspective. I had no problem watching my grandfather kill those mean geese...but a pony? A horse?????

I didn't read this with queasiness....just the knowledge that while I was willing to try a brain taco, I wasn't about to eat that steak upthread.

A lovely post - thank you for sharing; hope the foal had a nice long horsey life. And (and I mean this seriously) that none of her relatives became carpaccio.

All through the '80's I worked out at O'hare as a cargo handler for Delta Airlines. At that time Delta had ground handling contracts with many of the European carriers serving Chicago. At least twice a week we would get massive shipments of horsemeat, most of it looked to be horse quarters (insert quarter horse joke here)that were USDA stamped and loaded into large open-air steel cages (no refrigeration) the rest would be pre cut steaks packed in cardboard boxes.
All of the meat originated at the now closed Belgian owned Cavell intl. plant in DeKalb.
Sebena Belgian Airlines had a nonstop DC10 to Brussels that would sometimes carry as much as 20,000 lbs.of horsemet. At departure time we would call the tower and inform them that "Pegasus" was rolling.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/appellate_court_shuts_down_horse_meat_plant_in_illinois/

ViewsAskew wrote: While I was raised in a farming area and we slaughtered geese, ducks, and pigs that lived with us, the pony thing put animals in a completely different perspective. I had no problem watching my grandfather kill those mean geese...but a pony? A horse?????

I didn't read this with queasiness....just the knowledge that while I was willing to try a brain taco, I wasn't about to eat that steak upthread.

I get it...I've often wondered whether I could eat dog if presented with it - I certainly couldn't eat one of my own dogs. What I don't like about the above-mentioned legislation is not someone's personal aversion to a food, be it animal, bug, internal body part, or animal-derived foodstuff - which I respect - it's their attempt to prevent other people from eating it.

Though I suppose there's a line, even for me. I keep rolling around in my head whether it's hypocritical to be pro-meat and anti-dogfighting, and I finally came to this conclusion: I can't support someone's enjoyment of suffering exclusively for the power trip of watching something suffer. In this way, dogfighting, cockfighting, bullfighting and food traditions that are about the spectacle of the animal's suffering and not about eating are not the same as farming, butchering, and eating meat.

Mhays wrote:Funny, just today, a bill was introduced amending the Illinois Horse Meat Act to allow horse-processing for human consumption.

IIRC, the plant exports the meat and does not sell it
in the USA.

Mhays wrote:I get it...I've often wondered whether I could eat dog if presented with it - I certainly couldn't eat one of my own dogs. What I don't like about the above-mentioned legislation is not someone's personal aversion to a food, be it animal, bug, internal body part, or animal-derived foodstuff - which I respect - it's their attempt to prevent other people from eating it.

Though I suppose there's a line, even for me. I keep rolling around in my head whether it's hypocritical to be pro-meat and anti-dogfighting, and I finally came to this conclusion: I can't support someone's enjoyment of suffering exclusively for the power trip of watching something suffer. In this way, dogfighting, cockfighting, bullfighting and food traditions that are about the spectacle of the animal's suffering and not about eating are not the same as farming, butchering, and eating meat.

I am usually at the top of the list waving that we each have a right to do whatever we want (there is an unless) and NO one should stop us. Freedom of whatever: the food I eat, the religion I chose (or do not chose), sexual preferences, etc.

The unless, however, is important to me. Doing things that is harmful to another is off the list. You can't rape, kill, subject, etc.

Like you, there is a fine line and I'm not sure I'm always rigorous in my application of this standard. I eat a pig...but I have made the decision that I do my best to buy pig meat where the farming methods did not harm the environment or cause undue pain or stress for the animals. Same for all meat and dairy I consume. I run into problems with things like prostitution, but that's for another board.

The horse issue is strongly rolled up in the treatment that these animals receive. Interestingly enough, my mother married a man in the horse racing business. The stories of how animals are treated when no longer needed are enough to convince me that the horse meat at those factories did not come through humane animal practices.

I appreciate that the animal gave its life for me; the least I can do is treat is kindly before its demise.

ViewsAskew wrote:

Mhays wrote:The horse issue is strongly rolled up in the treatment that these animals receive. Interestingly enough, my mother married a man in the horse racing business. The stories of how animals are treated when no longer needed are enough to convince me that the horse meat at those factories did not come through humane animal practices.

I appreciate that the animal gave its life for me; the least I can do is treat is kindly before its demise.

I wonder if a racehorse, lean and muscular, with very little body fat, would provide the most delicious meat. I doubt it, though I would not mind eating a horsemeat burger made of one of the many nags I've lost money on over the years.

David Hammond wrote:

ViewsAskew wrote:

Mhays wrote:The horse issue is strongly rolled up in the treatment that these animals receive. Interestingly enough, my mother married a man in the horse racing business. The stories of how animals are treated when no longer needed are enough to convince me that the horse meat at those factories did not come through humane animal practices.

I appreciate that the animal gave its life for me; the least I can do is treat is kindly before its demise.

I wonder if a racehorse, lean and muscular, with very little body fat, would provide the most delicious meat. I doubt it, though I would not mind eating a horsemeat burger made of one of the many nags I've lost money on over the years.

You mean, that isn't what the claiming price was for?

It's available both in butcher shops and in restaurants here in Montréal. I've eaten it in France, but haven't gotten around to it here. Bridgestone, that looked like a pretty lean piece of meat—what was the texture like, compared to, say, beef or lamb?

Great pix, as always!

Geo

Geo - The texture was very lamb-like although that could also be due to the fact that I normally cook my lamb very, very rare. The steak I purchased was pretty lean but it was from the most marbled of the 4 or 5 whole entrecotes they had sitting out.

Whiskeybent explored this issue further in a podcast for Chicagoist, where he interviews Representative Jim Sacia, who sponsored the new bill. Fascinating that both the pro-slaughter and the anti-slaughter groups consider themselves to be champions of horse rights - the food/jobs seem to be almost an afterthought.

Summit on the Horse encourages use of horsemeat for human food.

It was just in 2007 that Congress ended the human consumption of horsemeat in the US.

Few weeks ago, I had my first taste of horsemeat in Zurich:



Was not knocked out by flavor (minimal, perhaps due to low fat content) or texture (a little tough, probably for same reason).

Bridgestone’s, I’m guessing, was a better cut, more skillfully prepared.

Wow...where were all you horse meat lovers when Cavell (in DeKalb) came under fire (figuratively and literally!)? I get it that for some, a horse is way more than meat for consumption. On the other hand, the protein was not wasted, and very much wanted by the foriegn market.

razbry wrote:Wow...where were all you horse meat lovers when Cavell (in DeKalb) came under fire (figuratively and literally!)? I get it that for some, a horse is way more than meat for consumption. On the other hand, the protein was not wasted, and very much wanted by the foriegn market.

Hope you didn't mistake me for a horsemeat lover.

Hi,

My sister is a big time horse enthusiast. If she knew I have eaten horse, I might not be permitted to darken her door.

Was your horse a home preparation or in a restaurant? I respect your consideration this may not be the best preparation. I have had to keep that thought in the back of my mind when introduced to something new. I think it is tremendous to have an open mind to try something again made by different hands. From my experience, if after the third time it is still not ringing a favorable note, I then begin to believe it is the new food I don't like.

My first taste of 'coon was horrible. Fortunately, I have come round to liking it.

Regards,

Was not knocked out by flavor (minimal, perhaps due to low fat content) or texture (a little tough, probably for same reason).

Hope you didn't mistake me for a horsemeat lover

Not a chance. I was surprised however by your mention that the you had this meal in Zurich. It just doesn't seem like a Switzerland sort of meat. Switzerland....beef....yes....I can hear the cow bells tinkle.

razbry wrote:

Was not knocked out by flavor (minimal, perhaps due to low fat content) or texture (a little tough, probably for same reason).

Hope you didn't mistake me for a horsemeat lover

Not a chance. I was surprised however by your mention that the you had this meal in Zurich. It just doesn't seem like a Switzerland sort of meat. Switzerland....beef....yes....I can hear the cow bells tinkle.

I found a couple of horse butchers in Geneva and elsewhere, on both French and German "sides" of the country.

I had horse meat in Geneva on 2 occasions.

The 1st time was bought from une boucherie chevaline at a farmer's market on the French side. We had steak hache (burgers) for the children, and filet mignon cut for us. The children loved theirs and asked for seconds. Ours were tender but with 'body'. The color is bright red, as if super saturated and infused with blood, more so than beef. The taste of blood is pronounced in a good way, slightly gamey like venison rather than lamb. If it weren't for social 'stigma' of ingesting animals we love, based on this first experience, I prefer horse over beef. Oh, and it's very very lean. Not a drop of fat rendered from the steak hache.

The 2nd experience was from a boucherie chevaline on the Swiss side. Filet mignon for hot oil fondue. Every bit as tender, but not as flavorful as my previous experience. Again, very lean even for filet mignon.

I think in both cases, the freshness of the meat makes a tremendous difference in the meat.

Haven't been back to Geneva for a while, but will definitely seek horse meat out again on the next visit.