salt horse

From the fact that horse meat was considered especially unappetizing and rarely eaten, but that the meat had been so heavily salted and dried that it could just be horse meat passed off as cow meat.

salt horse (countable and uncountable, plural salt horses)

1. (uncountable, US, obsolete, sailor's slang) salt beef
2. (countable, Britain, naval) A naval officer or rating whose training and experience have qualified him as a seaman rather than in any specialised trade.

• short sale