CIRCLING THE SQUARE

Approximately 25 times every day, faculty members and their friends order the specialty of the Faculty Club dining room, horse steak. This meat, frowned upon by most laymen, has been the delight of Quincy Street gourmets ever since it was first introduced at the Club over thirty years ago.

"The meat," declares Mr. Viktor Hatschier, Club manager, "is definitely not coming from retired race horses." He explains that it is imported from the West where steeds are specially bred for consumption. They are fed corn, oats, and a plant residue from the beat sugar industry until they are fat enough to be slaughtered and shipped.

Regular Boston butchers are prohibited by a local trade law from selling this meat. The Club buys it from a horse meat specialty shop, the Prosperity Market, all of whose products are examined and approved by Federal inspectors.

The only cut of horse meat which the Faculty Club buys is the loin or filet mignon, which is aged and seasoned with salt and black pepper for two weeks before it is cut into eight ounce steaks.

Although these are indistinguishable from regular steer meat, in appearance, they are prepared differently. The horse steak must not be grilled in the oven. It requires, instead, fast cooking over the hot flame of an open griddle. Chef Charles Rannou explains that this method of preparation insures tenderness and pungent flavor.

Chief Rannou takes his responsibility in the preparation of this meat very seriously. A native of France, he points out that his countrymen have always considered horse meat a delicacy on a par with grouse and partridge. He speaks rapturously of a horse salami credited with unmatched mellowness.

In an age when the price of beef steak is soaring, horsemeat continues to bring pleasure to its faithful consumers who can dine on it with potatoes. vegetables, salad, and beverage for only $1.05.