How and how much to cook horse meat?

Before you start cooking horse meat, you need to carry out several preparatory steps. This type of meat is tough. The most tender variety is considered to be foal meat at the age of 7-9 months, but in this case it will still be rougher than beef or pork. Boiled horse meat can be eaten separately or prepared with broth. In terms of taste, it is close to beef, but differs from it in richer taste and aroma.

Mandatory stages of preparing horse meat for cooking:

• before preparing any horse meat dish, the meat must be marinated to give it a more tender consistency;
• horse meat marinade is prepared on the basis of vinegar, onions, spices and salt (in such a mixture, the meat should stay in the refrigerator for at least several hours);
• it is believed that garlic can make horse meat more tender;
• before cooking, the meat must be rinsed as thoroughly as possible, scraped with a knife and remove all excess parts;
• before boiling, horse meat is poured with hot water and only after that is put on the fire;
• after a while, during the cooking process, foam will begin to form on the water, which must be removed with a spoon or slotted spoon;
• the pan is covered with a lid only after the foam stops forming;
• after two hours, the meat can be separated from the bones, disassembled or cut into smaller pieces;
• horse meat fibers always keep their shape and do not decay;
• if necessary or if horse meat is not soft enough, the meat is returned to the liquid and boiled.

The degree of hardness of horse meat can be determined in advance by its grade.… The meat of the first grade is more tender and cooks faster, and the preparation of the third grade horse meat will require a lot of effort. The first option includes the area of ​​the back, chest, lower back, groin and hip of the animal. The second grade is the area of ​​the neck and shoulder blades. The toughest type of meat is the drumstick, which is the third grade.

How much horse meat is cooked

On average, horse meat is cooked for about two hours. During its cooking, it is necessary to drain the water 1-2 times and pour in new liquid. If the dish is planned with broth, then it must be drained. In this case, first the meat is brought to readiness, then it is pulled out of the pan, the broth is filtered and only after that the horse meat is returned to the container, after which it must be boiled for another 10-20 minutes.

On average, horse meat is cooked:

• young meat is cooked for 2 hours;
• small pieces of meat reach readiness in 1,5-2,5 hours;
• the meat of an adult animal will have to be cooked for 3-4 hours.

Horse meat of the first and second grade is cooked for a shorter amount of time (but not less than two hours), and meat of the third grade – longer (cooking time may not be limited to three hours). You need to think about this issue in advance before buying meat.

Horse meat boiling time may differ depending on the age of the animal.… Young meat cooks faster, while old meat may not lose its firmness over several hours of cooking. If the horse meat is young, then during cooking the water must be changed 1-2 times, but the longer it is cooked, the more often this procedure should be carried out.

It is recommended to boil horse meat without fail even when preparing fried or stewed dishes. Thanks to this technique, the meat will turn out to be more juicy and tender. It is very difficult to fully roast horse meat, and it will take much more time than boiling it.