A Horse Dinner

Date: Wednesday 23rd October 2013

Venue: Edgbaston Golf Club

Sponsor: Graham Smith

Members were first tempted to attend a Horse Dinner with this teaser:

Attendees can expect an evening of fine dining with an equestrian bent. New member Graham Smith is earning his spurs by acting as our sponsor, while Ed Orchard, from Connolly’s Wine Merchants, will assist him in the task. Tim Balfour from Edgbaston Golf Club will, once again, be running the operation from the kitchen.

Although the eating of horsemeat is considered unsuitable for human consumption in many English-speaking cultures, several of our European neighbours have no such qualms. In light of recent controversies in the meat industry the time seemed ripe for a Buckland Club Horse Dinner. Fortunately frozen lasagne is definitely off the menu. Instead members can expect to have their taste buds tested with a variety of horse-based canapés, as well as a decent helping of horsey puns. Naturally a substantial dish using horsemeat can be fully expected, although the aim is that those who wish should gain the opportunity to compare and contrast this with an identical example using beef. Some diners might like to be reassured that there will be no sleight of hand, and that any traditionalists preferring to remain loyal to the bovine species will have that option.

This promises to be an occasion of education and entertainment during which members can expect to enjoy another dinner of exceptional quality. Buckland Club members are to be charged £40, and guests £50. In the unlikely event of oversubscription members will have priority, and then guests’ places will be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis.

Minutes of A Horse Dinner

The food we eat and the recipes we prepare come from many parts of the world. One of the sources, indeed the source of many of the sauces is Italy. The cooks accompanying the Popes of Rome on their move to Avignon brought Italian food to France which then developed into the French cuisine. Pasta Carbonara is said to have been invented in the Second World War when American troops came with their eggs and bacon. Lasagne became popular in our own diet on learning the delights of Italian food with the local spread of inexpensive Italian restaurants in the second half of the 20^thcentury, a trend exploited by the supermarkets with their introduction of ready cooked meals. Among these was Tesco, very British despite its Italian sounding name. This, and others, hit upon the idea of substituting the equine for the bovine in their dishes, including Lasagne, cheaper and perhaps indistinguishable taste-wise. What a pity from their point of view that this was not the case. The move was discovered. The media created a scandal. It did not quite lead to the cancellation of the Derby, but it was a close run thing. On the positive side it did generate an idea for a Buckland dinner.

Horsemeat is widely eaten. Indeed there are butchers who specialize in its purveyance and there are farms that breed horses for this specific purpose. So why not have a dinner with a hippic theme? And this is just what we did on Wednesday, 23 October 2013 at the Edgbaston golf club.The auspices on arrival were not good. At the entrance to the bar where drinks were served was a notice on the door asking us not to wear golf shoes. Not the sort of thing that goes with a Black Tie evening. There was another notice directing arrivals to a Prayer Book meeting. That might have been why the total attendance fell short of our usual numbers, only 51 members and guests as against the usual 80 or so. It could have been that some had ended up in the wrong room. Another explanation for the reduced numbers might have been a thought that the meat staring at them from the plate could have come from an animal fallen at Beecher’s Brook. Nothing of the kind was the case. All the produce was sourced from a horse farm rather than a racing stable. As the chairman remarked when introducing the sponsor, the principle of the Buckland Club, in the spirit of its eponymous inspirer, was to eat food that was unusual, experimental and challenging. This might have been true in prospect, but in reality while unusual and perhaps in our case experimental but not with the continental public, the challenge, if any, was psychological rather than physical.The sponsor on this occasion was Graham Smith, appropriately named as horseshoes are forged in smithies. There was a better reason for our inviting him. He was the owner of the Red Lion pub in the Jewellery Quarter where he and his innovative chef devised the recipes to be adapted by our chef, Tim Balfour, for the dinner. Also he owned the Lord Clifton Pub, named after the racehorse who won the St Leger in 1863 and who is portrayed, with the race wrongly spelt, on the back of the menu card .Before the meal we drank an Aldridge estate non vintage Sparkling Brut from South-Eastern Australia. With this we had snacks of Hay-smoked Horse Tartare, Horse or Beef Carpaccio and Wild Mushroom Roulade. This wine, and most of the others, was supplied by Edward Orchard of Connolly’s Wine Merchants who informed us that, coincidentally and fortuitously, the fizz was the name of the current Chairman of the British Horse Society. Throughout the evening we were to be saddled with equine allusions. Once we had got the bit between our teeth there was no stopping us.At this point, we learnt that in 1868 there was a dinner held in an attempt to launch horsemeat as a staple article in the English diet. The great man, Buckland himself, being present, presciently declared that hippophagy would not succeed in this country. Perhaps Tesco et al should have delved into history. If they had, they might have shied away from the project, although recently the idea was remoted by no less a person than the Princess Royal.The next course was labelled “Under Starter’s Orders”. And so the puns continued. A veritable Race Day. We were served Horse Mackerel with Cucumber, Beetroot and textures of Horseradish. Our Sponsor assured us that this was truly the name of a variety of mackerel. We were happy to learn this as it could have been a marine Centaur, a fish crossed with Sea Horse. The wine accompanying the dish was Sirius 2012, a mixture of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, typical of its Bordelais provenance. A search of Wikipedia revealed a German racehorse called Sirius. The name of the wine, and presumably that of the racehorse too, is derived from a classicized version of the Persian Tishtrya, “a divinity of rain and fertility… beautifully depicted as a white horse”. Sirius is also known as the Dog Star. Thankfully, this was not a sign that we were going the whole Buckland hog – hog would have been acceptable – and feast on dog.Next came “The Main Event”. Dishes of Boeuf Bourgignon and Cheval Bourgignon with Mash and Greens. We were asked to identify which was which. Although the tastes were similar, that made from horsemeat was firmer. Almost everyone got it right. The wine with them was a Domaine de la Chevalerie 2009, Les Galichets, 100% Cabernet Franc from the Loire. Lovely, but a bit of a punning con. “Chevalerie” translates literally as “Chivalry” but as the chivalrous knights were often on horseback, it’s almost alright. Pity we couldn’t run to Cheval Blanc, more appropriately horsey and with a high content of Cabernet Franc.“The Final Furlong” was Apple and Pear Tarte Tatin with White Horse Ice Cream with the liqueur, an Essensia 2008 Quady from California, Moscato being the grape. It is evident that by the final furlong the wine horse puns were beginning to tire, although they were just about able to complete the final run in to the Finishing Post, where there was a “Stirrup Cup” of Grant Burge 10yr old S. Australian Tawny made from Grenache. Mataro and Shiraz. This is usually drunk before the hunt, but it is also given to guests as they depart. Accompanying it were Hazelnut Horseshoes and Red Rum Truffles.Some of the diners had arrived nervous at the thought of eating horse. By the end of the evening they were convinced that horsemeat tasted good. This was due to the quality of the produce, the excellence of the cooking, for which formal thanks was paid by the Chairman to Tim Balfour and his staff and to Dave Lewis, the chef from the Red Lion, also present. As proceedings were drawn to a close the contribution of Graham Smith and Edward Orchard was acknowledged and applauded. Graham’s commentary during the meal was both informative and amusing, delivered in a Proustian, Joyce-ian Stream of Consciousness manner. Edward told us all about the wines with an enthusiasm that was infectious.Fortunately, the auspices had proved wrong. It might have been a Mare’s Nest, but it wasn’t. We might have fallen at the first fence, but we didn’t. Despite his reservations about horsemeat, Frank Buckland would have been proud of us. The only problem was that we were unable to rein in the punning.

David London

Dinner Minutes Secretary

David London reads the minutes of the previous dinner

Menu by Roger Hale

-oOo-

An Alternative Viewpoint on the Horse Dinner

Occasionally we find the Club appearing from the mists of cyberspace. This post appeared on a blog called Meatgeek, and the writer was clearly a guest at the dinner. This unbiased opinion provides an interesting insight. If anyone can shed any light on the author then please get in touch.

Nov.13,2013

I was invited to a horse dinner a few weeks ago.

I don’t very often dust off the dinner jacket, especially for midweek shenanigans, but I wasn’t about to turn this down. A meeting of the Buckland Dining Club, which meets twice a year. It’s named after a Victorian chap called William* Buckland. To quote the Guardian’s article:

“Buckland’s obsession with the animal kingdom knew no bounds. As President of the Royal Geographical Society he published the first scientific study of a dinosaur skeleton, while his role at the Society for the Acclimatization of Animals allowed him to import all sorts of creatures into the UK in order to study their suitability for the dinner table. Rather conveniently, this coincided with his lifelong personal ambition, which was to eat an example of every animal in existence, like some kind of crazed, bloodthirsty Noah.”

A man after my own heart, so to speak.

Anyway, here’s what we had.

Before the off:

A selection of Canapés, served whilst we milled about drinking fizzy stuff.

Hay smoked horse tartare – About as horsey as it gets, surely? Served on some kind of wheat biscuit, with a tiny dollop of something on top. I would have actually preferred it dollopless. But the meat’s lovely. Really lean and tender, spot on.

Horse vs. Beef carpaccio – The first of the evening’s Equine / Bovine showdowns. Horse was a clear winner here, it’s just perfect served as carpaccio. The beef was very nice also.

Wild mushroom roulade – horsemeat rolled with horse mushrooms and parsely. Really very good indeed.

On the Course:

Horse d’oeuvres – A shot glass containing a raw oyster and warm smoked bacon broth, with itty bitty cubes of veg (itty bitty is the official French term). It was outstanding. Shame it was just one each, I could have gone for a couple more quite easily. Served with Brewdog’s superb “Dead Pony Club” IPA.

Under Starter’s Orders:

Horse mackerel with cucumber, beetroot and textures of horseradish – The chef said that horse mackerel is just normal mackerel. I mentioned this to my friend, who’s a bit of a fish expert and he said that was nonsense and that it’s a completely different fish. It turns out that “horse mackerel” can refer to all sorts of fish, but in the UK it normally refers to the Atlantic Horse Mackerel – which wasn’t what we were eating that night.

Anyway – it was a delicious starter. A warm mackerel fillet served on thinly sliced beetroot discs, with a small, but beautifully pickled pile of cucumber, horseradish cream and what I can only describe as, “a line of powdered horseradish”. All very nice. I would have liked more cucumber, but hey.

It came with a a ‘Sirius’ 2012 Bordeaux blanc.

The Main Event:

Boeuf Bourguignon v. Cheval Bourguignon – the evening’s second horse v. cow showdown. Served with mash and greens, we were invited to guess which meat was which. It was really very obvious, and the beef was the clear winner tastewise. Horse seems too lean for long, slow cooking, and was a bit dry as a result, whereas the beef was fattier and therefore perfect, all fork-falling apart loveliness.

Beef – 9/10
Horse – 4/10

It came with a Domaine de la Chevalerie 2009 ‘Les Galichets’ – which I assume was chosen because it’s red and has the word ‘cheval’ in the title. I could say that it has a full aromatic dark cherry nose, with blackcurrant and gravelly notes throughout, a midweight palate and dancing fruity tannins. I could say that, but I’m not a massive wine ponce so I won’t. What I will say however is that it was very bloody nice.

The Final Furlong:

Apple & Pear Tarte Tatin with White Horse Ice cream – Tenuous horse link, but a good tarte tatin which I wolfed down. Served with a superb, citrussy dessert wine.

The Finish Post:

Hazelnut horseshoes and Red Rum Truffles – by this point I was feeling like I was about to give birth to a foal, but in for a penny, as they say. These were good, but nothing to write home about. Served with a 10 year old Tawny port, which was very nice indeed – I didn’t even know those existed. Might have to buy a bottle for Xmas.

It was a really enjoyable meal – I didn’t take any pictures as it didn’t seem appropriate, but you get the idea.

Try horse meat if you get the chance. It’s bloody delicious!