a new 'mane' course for Perth

BUTCHER GIVES HORSE MEAT A RUN

 


Butcher Vince Garreffa has been given the go-ahead to sell horse meat for human consumption.

Final approvals were issued yesterday by Agriculture Minister Terry Redman and now the hunt is on for a one to two-year-old horse that fits Mr Garreffa's exacting standards.

 

"It needs to be relatively young and obviously disease-free," he said. "Perhaps a horse that might be destined for the pet meat market."

 

In France, horse butchers, boucheries chevalines, have long been a part of the culinary landscape, but in recent years equine meat consumption in France has fallen out of fashion and sales have plummeted.

 

But Mr Garreffa and Nedlands restaurateur Pierre Ichallalene, of Chez Pierre, are confident there will be great interest from diners, particularly on France's national day, Bastille Day, on July 14.

 

"It's something different, which makes it very interesting," Mr Ichallalene said. "We sell livers, brains, that kind of thing, so I suspect people will give it a go. We'll do a taster on Bastille Day and then if there's a good reaction we'll put it on the menu.

 

"We'll be using the fillets, they're very rich and very lean, so they need to be cooked no more than medium rare, like kangaroo.  We'll serve it up very simply with perhaps a sweeter sauce, much in the same way you'd treat game."

 

Mr Redman's decision to allow horse to join cattle, sheep, pigs and goats as a "declared animal under the WA Meat Industry Act" was temporary, the minister's spokesman said. But the Government would "consider extending approvals should the public appetite for horse demand it".

 

There is no domestic market for horse meat, but there is a successful export market, which Mr Garreffa believes WA should have a share of.

 

Mr Garreffa will be serving horse meat with truffles at next month's Mundaring Truffle Festival.

 

Pan fried fillet of horse with reduction sauce.


Ingredients

4 trimmed horse fillets (about 250g each)

2 Shallots

1/2 cup of sherry vinegar

10 button mushrooms

2 cups of demi-glace or rich beef stock

20g butter

Method

1. Season the steaks well and panfry in a hot pan until rare to medium-rare. Take them off heat to rest.

2. In same pan, sauté shallots and mushrooms until soft, then deglaze pan with sherry vinegar and reduce by half. Add demi-glace and reduce by half again

3 When sauce is the right (sticky) consistency, take it from the heat and whisk in the butter until glossy. Adjust seasoning. Return the meat to the sauce to warm through. Serve with sauce on the side.


This dish goes really well with honey roasted parsnips, sweet potato and nutmeg puree or Lyonnaise potatoes
ROB BROADFIELD, The West Australian July 1, 2010



Posts: 3246

Date Joined: 15/08/09

Brings new meaning

Thu, 2010-07-01 10:25

to the phrase, "putting the nose bag on"

Posts: 9358

Date Joined: 21/02/08

Ate a bit in spain too,

Thu, 2010-07-01 10:26

Ate a bit in spain too, brought a few pics home too for the aunt, she runs a few lousy hayburners.

____________________________________________________________________________

hlokk's picture

Posts: 4293

Date Joined: 04/04/08

Horse sashimi is apparently

Thu, 2010-07-01 11:24

Horse sashimi is apparently popular with some people in japan. Not sure how common but seems it isn't unusual.

Posts: 9358

Date Joined: 21/02/08

Historically horse was eaten

Thu, 2010-07-01 11:32

Historically horse was eaten in australia right up to the end of the 1st world war.

Apparently people just felt bad for all the horses serving abroad with the Australian Light Horse in Turkey. I can't really remember what the deal was, but they were probably supposed to shoot them when they left, but some were remarkably smuggled home to Australia.

____________________________________________________________________________

roberta's picture

Posts: 2773

Date Joined: 08/07/08

I've eaten horse meat

Thu, 2010-07-01 11:55

in Holland, thought I was eating beef but Auntie told me after that it was horse meat.  They breed a special horse for the meat trade.  Personally couldn't eat it here, love horses too much.  During the 2nd world war, my fathers twin brother drew the line at eating dog, he'd just go and steal a sheep to feed the family in Monnikerdam.  My mother ate whale meat in Scotland after the war, she said it tasted like beef.

____________________________________________________________________________

Ginger Tablets Rock

 

Posts: 3246

Date Joined: 15/08/09

It amazes me

Thu, 2010-07-01 12:14

that there is not a market for camel meat, having seen many thousands of them in the central lands and the condition that they are in (good). i have eaten it (hump steaks) and it is without doubt some of the best meat I have eaten. It is considered some of the purest meat, uncontaminated with pesticides and the like because of the environ they live in. I know there is loads and loads of it that is culled for pet meat.

Buz's picture

Posts: 1555

Date Joined: 28/08/07

Camel meat market

Thu, 2010-07-01 19:10

Suprisingly there is a bit of a camel meat market in Oz. Just that nearly all of it is sent off to the middle east. Watched a doco about it on landline about a year ago. Apparently there is only one dedicated abatoir for camels and it on the edge of the desert in S.A.

I used to get it quiet regualary from the Malaga Markets(until the meat shop i got it from closed). Absolutly love camel meat ever since first trying it in Iraq. Tastes a bit like beef, but leaner, no gaminess at all i reckon. Wasnt too expensive either cheaper than a scotch fillet.

Does anyone know where you can buy it NOR seeing my normal supplier has now moved on?

Buz.

crasny1's picture

Posts: 7016

Date Joined: 16/10/08

I hope they dont have a Race Horse

Thu, 2010-07-01 12:37

Or the steak might run off the plate.

Neels

____________________________________________________________________________

"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk

Posts: 3246

Date Joined: 15/08/09

What if it was a trotter

Thu, 2010-07-01 12:45

would you eat it and be running to the loo all day?

Posts: 3246

Date Joined: 15/08/09

Would this be food

Thu, 2010-07-01 12:48

for the Neeiiiggghhhhbour?

Indiana's picture

Posts: 307

Date Joined: 15/12/09

Lost At Belmont

Thu, 2010-07-01 13:21

I lost a few bucks at Belmont yesterday !

Maybe they could start there ............

____________________________________________________________________________

" IF YOUR NOT GOING TO EAT IT ......PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU CAUGHT IT"

 

7739ian's picture

Posts: 948

Date Joined: 25/06/08

My daughter

Thu, 2010-07-01 13:27

went to Italy as an exchange student when she was 15 - hated her Christmas dinner of BOILED horse and as she called them budgies - apparently anything with wings is shot and eaten.

 

alfred's picture

Posts: 3097

Date Joined: 12/01/07

In many parts of the world

Thu, 2010-07-01 14:41

In many parts of the world they eat dog.

hhmmmmmm.........  do they eat dog here?  I just realised don't see any strays ......

 

deepwater's picture

Posts: 1921

Date Joined: 09/05/07

im looking forward to eating

Fri, 2010-07-02 05:28

im looking forward to eating a mean horse steak thats for sure

jeff

Tony Halliday's picture

Posts: 2500

Date Joined: 14/06/07

at the moment it is a real

Fri, 2010-07-02 07:14

at the moment it is a real issue in the Equine industry as well, with about 1000 horses not making the grade in the horse racing game and being sent off to the knackers for either pet food or they end up starving to death in some buggers field in summer.
As for me, I could not eat horse, as I love my horses more than many of my fellow man..
but I can see that there is a real market for prime quality horse and camel meat. At the moment we shoot up to 100,000 feral camels & feral horses a year in Australia, but leave the carcass’s to rot in the outback.

The biggest issue is the over breeding of sport race horses that can’t be used for racing and in times of down turn that get tossed out.

Good luck to this guy, if he has a real market for quality and well priced meat, then many with a culture of eating horse will enjoy it.

Big differences between horse and whale is the one is endangered and the other is not. And the one is domesticated and be controlled in breeding and the other is not. ( before we toss that argument into the pile.)

So horse can be a sustainable product, like goat, sheep, cow, chicken etc. Whales can’t be as they are not in the breeding scale and volume…

I’d like to see less horses being bred, with those being turned out for racing, being controlled by numbers and not greed.

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

i ate it in France not

Fri, 2010-07-02 09:38

i ate it in France not really knowing it but it is quite similar to beef, a little stringy but in the stew i had it was plesent. I can understand the feelings for not eating it by others, my mrs still can't eat kangaroo but i don't think i'll be lining up to eat it either, beef and lamb no worries, bring it on.

____________________________________________________________________________

Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target

jay_burgess's picture

Posts: 4648

Date Joined: 18/08/05

I'll give it a go!

Fri, 2010-07-02 13:44

I'll give it a go!