Horse meat belongs to the category of rare game, which is why it has long been considered a real delicacy that is not accessible to every gourmet. It has a specific taste and a lot of useful properties.
Horse meat
Horse meat is a product obtained by slaughtering mares, geldings and stallions. Animals must be between one and three years old.
Dishes, which include horse meat, are national for Turkic, Mongolian and other nomadic peoples. This product is consumed in different forms - it can be baked, dried, smoked, boiled or fried.
When purchasing meat, special attention should be paid to external signs. Thanks to them, you can evaluate the quality of the goods. Fresh product has a uniform crimson hue, elasticity and a damp surface. But the signs of stale horse meat will be:
- gray or brown tint;
- mucus and blood on the surface;
- rather strong specific aroma;
- yellowish fat.
It is important to remember that meat is best stored in a cold place for up to four days. If you spend more time in the refrigerator, it will quickly deteriorate. As for the freezer, providing a temperature of about -17 degrees, you can keep the product there for up to a week.
Nutritional value and calorie content
Wild meat in a horse has all the necessary elements. 100 grams account for 19 g of protein, 10 g of fat, 70 g of water and 1 g of ash.
Horse meat, as you know, is a lean product and has a reduced energy value. Calorie content directly depends on the method of preparation:
- crude - 167 kcal;
- stewed - 199 kcal;
- boiled - 214 kcal;
- smoked - 147 kcal;
- fried - 269 kcal;
- dried - 300 kcal;
- smoked and boiled - 129 kcal.
The basturma will contain about 239 kcal. In addition to it, people often cook sausages from horsemeat cooked-smoked, and their calorie content is 350 kcal.
Benefit
Buying horses for meat is quite a profitable business, as the product has several advantages. It is of great benefit to the human body, which is why it is in demand in many countries.
Horse meat is dietary and low fat. It contains in sufficient quantities perfectly balanced animal proteins. This product is absorbed very quickly and does not cause discomfort after consumption. Thanks to this, losing weight can safely include it in your diet, without fear for increasing calories.
Horse meat is rich in B vitamins. They are known to be able to regulate the metabolic processes occurring in the body of each person. For this reason, experts strongly recommend consuming meat after a mental shock or prolonged stress.
The meat contains a minimal amount of substances that cause allergic reactions. Therefore, people prone to them can eat it in moderation every day.
The inclusion of horse meat in the diet will make it possible to cope with somnological diseases. These include difficulty falling asleep, insomnia, intermittent sleep, and so on.
The product has a lot of vitamin E. It provides protection of cell membranes from the negative effects of free radicals. If you consume the product regularly, you can slow down the aging process in the body.
Healers say that the meat of stallions, geldings and mares has a beneficial effect on male potency. In addition, it significantly reduces the risk of infertility and improves the composition of the ejaculate.
Contraindications and harm
Slaughtering horses for meat cannot go negative if you know about contraindications for the product you receive. This information should be well understood.
The main contraindications to the consumption of the product in question will be individual intolerance, excess uric acid and gout. In addition, you should pay attention to other important points:
- Horse meat is a favorable environment for the existence of Trichinella and Salmonella. This means that before it is consumed, it must undergo thorough thermal and culinary processing.
- The meat broth that appears during cooking can have an adverse effect on the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, it easily provokes diarrhea. It is for these reasons that experienced culinary specialists do not cook dishes based on broth.
Cooking Application
Fattening horses for meat, as a rule, is carried out to use the finished product in the preparation of various dishes. Most often, dishes based on it can be found in Asian countries, but in Europe it is extremely rare.
Someone likes to eat horsemeat raw, cooking tartare, and someone more like meat undergoing heat treatment. It is very tasty on the grill.
The most profitable side dish for meat is rice and potatoes. Regardless of the cooking option, these supplements perfectly emphasize the special taste of horsemeat, and the entire portion will saturate any person for a long time.
Cooking secrets
People involved in the sale of horses for meat rarely provide guidance on how to prepare a product. Because of this, unaware buyers often have problems, as the dish is ultimately simply impossible to eat. In fact, there are not too many secrets. Here are some of them:
- the most delicious will be the carcass of an animal that has lived no more than two years, although the meat of three-year-old horses can also be consumed without fear;
- since the product is characterized by excessive rigidity, the heat treatment time will have to be increased;
- more tenderness can be given to meat by steeping or pickling it, thereby simultaneously relieving it of a specific flavor;
- during cooking, horsemeat should be placed only in salted and already boiling water;
- it is necessary to cook meat for three hours, regularly removing fat;
- to improve the taste and obtain greater saturation, you can add carrots, onions or bay leaves to the carcass during the preparation process.
Animal breeding
Recently, breeding horses for meat is gaining more and more popularity. This is explained by the fact that the cost of fattening is significantly lower than the income received. Not every person is able to withstand breeding, because for this it will take a lot of effort and spend enough time on feeding and slaughtering.
Breeds for slaughter
For animals intended specifically for slaughter, it is necessary to provide good care, because only in this case it will be possible to obtain a delicate and tasty product. For this purpose, it is best to use rocks adapted to natural conditions. For example, in Kalmykia, experts bred stallions whose meat remained fat and juicy, although they managed without water for a long time.
The most profitable option is to choose a breed from the local variety. They are adapted to the conditions in this territory, so no problems will arise.
The yield of horse meat is the same amount as that of bulls or cows. In case of keeping on pasture, it will be about 60% with 400 kg of live weight.
Care
Absolutely anyone can hand over a horse for meat, but this must be done only after preparing the animal. He will need to provide proper care in order to preserve all the useful properties of the carcass and its special taste.
Everyone knows that the horse belongs to the herbivorous inhabitants of the planet. For a complete diet, she needs grass or hay, as well as fresh air and plenty of water.
Herd content is considered ideal for fattening. Perennial grasses are sown on pastures, which are designed to improve animal feeding. It is best to make several pens or barns with stalls, so that stallions, geldings and mares can be there calmly in the cold season or in case of heavy rainfall. At the same time, feeders with a supply of feed, grain and hay should be located inside.
The maintenance of herds does not require large financial costs. Slaughter will cost more than fattening. As a rule, animals are slaughtered closer to winter, and the reasons for this are the following nuances:
- sensing the approach of cold weather, horses gain weight, which allows you to get a much greater yield;
- meat is better stored in winter;
- nomadic peoples provide themselves with a supply of juicy meat for the entire period of cooling.
An excellent substitute for the herd content are pens, pastures and stables of small sizes. In this case, the advantage should be given to meat breeds, as they have more mass and output from one individual. As for fattening in the absence of steppes, it combines grazing on pastures with top dressing.
As a complement to complementary foods, you can use bran, corn and oilcake. You should also give juicy top dressing in the form of carrots, beets, turnips and potatoes. About 30 kg of products per day go to fattening.
Broiler content
Some people prefer stable content. It uses accelerated fattening using special technologies. Thanks to this, in just a year, the animal reaches a weight of 450 kg, and the yield is 58%. Reducing growing time significantly increases profitability. Foals at the age of six months have a mass of about 200 kg.
To speed up the feeding, prebiotics are used (Prestarter, Starter and others). They contain microorganisms that restore the intestinal microflora and accelerate the growth of pets.
Fattening before slaughter lasts no more than three months. In no case can one work on these stallions, because this will contribute to weight loss and lower meat quality. That is why the peoples, from ancient times raising cattle for food, contain it separately.
Where to sell the product
When doing business on horseback, you also need to take care of marketing. A profitable option would be to sell to factories specializing in meat processing. In addition, you should not exclude the construction of your own sausage shop. Finished products can be sent for sale in motels, shops and holiday homes.
Before you engage in such a business, you need to analyze the advantages and disadvantages. The main advantages include:
- payback up to three years;
- diet meat;
- unpretentious maintenance;
- minimum physical costs;
- milk as an additional income.
There are much fewer minuses here:
- taboo for some nations;
- trend for vegetarianism.
Breeding horses for meat is quite profitable. Although this work cannot be called very easy, it is interesting and exciting. Having decided on the initial capital and choosing cattle, you can safely begin to build a business.