The very best: horse sausage from Van Beek
Never has a single sausage crossed my path that surpassed the horse sausage from Van Beek butcher’s shop in Utrecht.
When I was little, my parents would cycle for forty minutes there and another forty minutes back to the other side of Utrecht, to score a piece of meat at Van Beek in Lombok. The horse butcher’s shop, where time has stood still for about eighty years, is still located on Kanaalstraat.
There used to be twelve other horse butchers in Utrecht besides the family business. By now, Van Beek stands alone at the top, alongside about five other horse butchers in the whole of the Netherlands.
Old Dutch glory
The modest butcher’s shop is now run by mother and daughter Van Beek. They work together to turn all the horse meat that comes in into the products in the display cases. Besides the sausages, there are also beautiful steaks, tender minced meat and more for sale.
The butcher’s shop is a piece of old Dutch glory on a street where you otherwise find halal butcher’s shops and Turkish and Moroccan greengrocers and fruit shops. While you wait in the black-and-white tiled shop for your freshly made, warm sausage, there’s a good chance you’ll be offered a cup of coffee.
Guilt free
For anyone who has reservations about horse meat: no horse in the Netherlands is bred for slaughter. There are very few types of meat you can tuck into just as guilt free as horse meat. Also check out this video from De Wereld Draait Door:
Still have your reservations? Try a slice of Van Beek’s horse sausage, and you’re guaranteed to walk out the door again with a sausage tucked under your arm.
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