Horse meat on the dinner table soon? … Only if you can get past the smell

As part of the spending bill signed by President Obama last month, the 2007 funding ban for USDA inspections of horse meat processing plants was allowed to lapse.  With USDA inspection allowed, the door is now open to reviving the horse meat trade.  It hasn’t received much play in the press, but animal rights activists are fuming on the blogs, with derogatory remarks about eating Man-O-War or National Velvet.   But they need not be worried.  There is a reason it won’t catch on – Smell. 

In the late 1940s, after my sister was given a pet cocker spaniel for her birthday, horsemeat became part of his life.  The vet had great disdain for canned dog food and suggested hamburger or ground horsemeat.  As hamburger was pricey, horsemeat was affordable and available at the local butcher shop.  So my mother opted for horsemeat.  And I was called on to cook it.  All three pounds of it.  All I can say is it has a unique odor when cooking and it is not pleasant.  And you will never forget it. 

That happened when several years later the family took a weekend trip to the Poconos in Pennsylvania and had trouble finding a place to eat.  In desperation we stopped at a seedy hamburger joint along the road.  And there it was, the same odor.

Much has been made that the French consider horse a delicacy.  But for me, there isn’t enough garlic in the world to mask that smell.