Customers perusing the menu at L’Escargot Bleu in Broughton Street were offered a choice between pan-fried horse rump steak served with a peppercorn sauce, or horse meat steak tartare prepared in the traditional way with raw duck egg yolk, alongside conventional dishes such as Shetland lamb, Perthshire venison and Borders rose veal.
Fred Berkmiller, patron of L’Escargot Bleu, said: “I’m not pushing people to eat horse, but I eat it regularly. It is tender, sweet and less fatty than beef, and contains higher levels of iron and Omega-3. Each time I go home to Tours, my father makes me a horse steak tartare. It’s so delicious I want my Scottish customers to taste it too.”
However, he is courting controversy. Horse meat may be popular in France, but it has yet to be accepted as part of modern Scottish cuisine. Many people in this country regard the horse as a companion animal and would not dream of eating one.
Some 70,000 horses are eaten in France each year, and it is the only red meat to be gaining in popularity. It is now available in supermarkets as well as specialist “boucheries chevaline”.
However, Mr Berkmiller believes British tastes are changing and that we are ready to take horse meat to our hearts, much as we have frogs’ legs and snails. He has been serving andouille (smoked horse tripe sausage), cervelas and saucission (made with minced and diced horse meat respectively), imported ready-made from Paris. They sold out within a fortnight, and their popularity encouraged him to consider serving horse steak.
He asked a leading Scottish meat supplier, Campbell’s Prime Meats in West Lothian, to source it for him. This week, an 8.5kg entire horse rump was delivered to the restaurant direct from Rungis market in Paris-- the largest food market in the world.
Deep red in colour, and with very little fat, it wobbled on the plate like a jelly as head chef Damien Rolain sliced into it to expose the soft, lean texture that makes it perfect for a raw tartare.
Mr Rolain, who was born near Avignon and worked at the upscale Abstract and Atrium restaurants in Edinburgh before joining L’Escargot Bleu when it opened last year, lovingly described his fresh horse rump as “so tender it’s like butter”.
His horse steak tartare was delicious, and its chilled raw meat had a melting mouth feel that blended beautifully with the egg, mustard, chopped gherkins and parsley. I could almost feel my iron levels soar. By contrast, I found the pan-fried rump steak a bit too dense and quite sweet with a gamey back-kick. I missed the fatty flavours of beef -- though perhaps that’s something I could get used to.
Stevie Walker, director of Campbell’s Prime Meats, which supplies Scotland’s top chefs including Andrew Fairlie, Martin Wishart, Jeff Bland and Tom Kitchin as well as all the five-star hotels, said he was startled by the restaurant’s request.
“I’ve been asked to source some unusual items in my time, but this is the first time I’ve ever been asked for horse meat,” he said. “We had to find a supplier of French-bred horse meat, and he dropped it off for us at Rungis market. It was a challenge.”
It’s legal to import horse meat under strict EU regulations. However, there are no official statistics on the amount of horse meat imported into the UK -- because consumption is so low.
Latest figures show that in 2005 some 4.7 million horses were consumed worldwide, mostly in Central Asia and South America but also in Canada, France and Spain. In Italy, some 213,000 horses are slaughtered for consumption each year, with another 20,000 imported from Poland and Eastern Europe to satisfy demand, which is estimated at a kilo of horse meat per person per year.
In Britain, the jury is out. In his F-Word TV programme in 2007, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay suggested we eat horse meat. A readers’ poll in Time Out magazine showed that 82% of respondents supported him.
However, Ramsay’s one-time protege Marcus Waering, the chef patron at Petrus in London, said: “I would never eat horse meat and I certainly wouldn’t serve it in any of my restaurants. It’s not part of our food culture. It’s absolutely unthinkable.”
Back in L’Escargot Bleu, Edinburgh customer Gordon Millan was delighted with his dish of rare horse meat rump steak.
“I think the difference between horse meat and beef is in the texture rather than the flavour,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s tougher; I’d say it’s more muscular. Horse is slightly stronger in taste, but it’s a very subtle difference.
“I can see this becoming a speciality because it’s so unusual and delicious.”
Vincent Ford, one of the oldest butchers in Glasgow, said: “Horse meat is not something we eat in Scotland. People are squeamish enough about the thought of eating a wee lamb, never mind a horse.”
Is it a thoroughbred winner on the menu?
NO: Andrew Fairlie, head chef at Scotland’s only two-Michelin-starred restaurant at Gleneagles
“I wouldn’t serve horse meat because I don’t believe it would be popular with my customers.
“There is a squeamishness about eating horse that’s very British.
“We tend to think of horses as domesticated animals, something to be kept in a stable rather than eaten at a table.
“Serving horse meat would be like serving Afghan Hound in many people’s eyes.
“That said, I have eaten horse meat in France and it’s very nice.”
YES: James Budge, 26, student
“I have eaten horse meat in France and I’d like to see it on more menus in Scotland. It’s a bit more bland than beef but that’s because it’s less fatty and therefore healthier. To me it’s just another meat and I don’t see any stigma about it. We have no qualms about eating cow or pig, so why shouldn’t we eat horse?”
