Strange Foods. Jerry Hopkins

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      In April 1871, Le Monde Illustré depicted scenes of the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris, when market stalls selling cat and dog meat drew lines of people.

      horse

      My friend Richard Lair, an elephant expert living in Thailand-where he says he has eaten just about everything except elephant—was attending San Francisco State University in the early 1960s when he was introduced to horse meat. A pal of his was a chef who often shopped for his dinner at a pet store, the only place where horse meat could be purchased (in America) easily-this, because it was regarded (in America) as food fit only for dogs.

      Horse Tartare

      5-8 oz. lean horse flank or rump (per person)

      1 egg yolk

      Worcestershire sauce or hot pepper sauce to taste

      Salt and pepper to taste

      1 garlic clove, minced

      1 tbs. red onion, chopped

      1 tbs. parsley, chopped

      1 tsp. capers

      Catsup, olive oil, soy sauce

      Grind meat and form into a ball, working in egg yolk, garlic, Worcestershire sauce or hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper. Flatten one side so the ball will hold its position on a plate. Place the onion, parsley, and capers on the plate around the meat; these are then added to the fork while eating. Serve with catsup, olive oil, more Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce as desired for additional flavoring.

      This gentleman knew the various cuts of horse, my friend told me, and he knew fresh meat when he saw it, so when the “pet food” met his approval, he purchased some of the rump and took it home and prepared the horse meat in the same way he prepared beef bourguignon, coating the cubes of lean meat with flour and frying them in a heavy saucepan with onions and shallots, and perhaps a tot of brandy, set aflame just before serving with potatoes and vegetables.

      Horse meat? Some Euro-Americans bristle at the thought. This was, after all, the mammal most closely identified with human activity. From approximately 2,500 B.C., the animal has been an indispensable part of society, primarily as a beast of burden and a means of transportation. As early as 900 B.C., the Assyrian horse was drafted into the forerunner of what became called the “cavalry.” At the same time, in Greece, horse racing was included in the earliest Olympic games. They also pulled chariots into battle and plows across fields.

      The horse was introduced to the “New World” by Spanish conquistadors in the seventeenth century, where it proliferated on the vast, grassy plains, and became a cowboy’s (and in Argentina, a gaucho’s) best friend and essential partner. Before trains traversed the United States, mail was delivered by Pony Express, people in stagecoaches were drawn cross-country by teams of four and six. Later, horses pulled trolley cars and fire engines. Teamsters and tradesmen transported their goods in horse-drawn wagons, much as the Budweiser Clydesdales pull beer carts for TV commercials today. In time, of course, the horse was replaced: by the train (initially called the “iron horse”), the tractor, the car, and truck.

      The horse performs both essential and romantic tasks. Today, there are horses that pull carriages through New York’s Central Park, others that perform tricks in circuses. There are horses that still help cowboys herd cattle and horses that race around tracks and horses that jump over fences. Polo is an international sport, dating back to ancient India, when a goat’s head frequently was used as a ball. There are police horses and horses on dude ranches and there are ponies for little girls to ride on their birthdays. There also are horses on merry-go-rounds and, over the past century, dozens of horses that were stars in movies and in the international racing circuit. Equestrian clubs, riding competitions, and breed shows are everywhere.

      With this background, it is no surprise that there are organizations, mainly in the United States, determined to halt the killing of wild horses in the American West and Canada for export to Europe as food. A 1996 equine survey counted seven million horses in America, about twenty percent more than a decade earlier. Of those sold at auction, most were “going to Paris,” the local euphemism for the European horse-meat market.

      We know that prehistoric man hunted the horse as a source of meat from cave paintings dating back to the Ice Age showing hunters and their equine prey. In fact, some historians believe the horse was domesticated as a source of food before it was used as a beast of burden. Although the flesh was forbidden by Mosaic law, Joseph raised horses for food during a famine and the Greek historian Herodotus told how horse was boiled and then cooked with ox.

      In more modern times, Marco Polo told of the Mongols draining small but regular quantities of the blood from their mounts as they moved across central Asia, taking milk to make foods of the curd or yogurt type, and drinking mare’s milk as well for sustenance. (See “Blood” section for further discussion.) “First they bring the milk [almost] to the boil,” the early trader and explorer wrote. “At the appropriate moment they skim off the cream that floats on the surface and put it in another vessel to be made into butter, because so long as it remains the milk can not be dried. Then they stand the milk in the sun and leave it to dry. When they are going on an expedition they take about ten pounds of this milk; and every morning they take out about half a pound of it and put it in a small leather flask, shaped like a gourd, with as much water as they please. Then while they ride, the milk in the flask dissolves into a fluid, which they drink. And this is their breakfast.”

      Another early traveler in the east was William de Rubruquis, who published a record of his Remarkable Travels into Tartary and China, 1253, in which he told how the Mongols made kumiss, a fermented liquor. Just as the standing horse milk was about to ferment, it was poured into a large bladder and beaten with “a piece of wood made for that purpose, having a knot at the lower end like a man’s head, which is hollow within; and so soon as they beat it, it begins to boil [froth] like new wine, and to be sour and of a sharp taste; and they beat it in that manner till butter comes. After a man hath taken a draught it leaves a taste behind it like that of almond milk, going down very pleasantly, and intoxicating weak brains, for it is very heady and powerful.” The consumption of horse milk and its byproducts is not so common today, although a weak version of kumiss is drunk in parts of China. (Where the alcoholic strength is at a low two percent, no match even for the feeblest beers.)

      The French, especially Parisians, have eaten horse meat commonly and openly since 1811, when it was decreed legal following a long ban. Today in France, especially in the Camargue in the south where herds of wild horses dashing through water is a photographic cliche, some breeds are raised for meat and as is true of most meat sources, the young—the colts—are preferred for their tenderness. Easily digested, СКАЧАТЬ