Toby'shuman

I was just wondering if any of you guys eat offal?

I was brought up eating lamb/pig kidneys and liver and still to this day love the taste etc.

Here in Spain eating of offal is quite common, whilst I cannot find it in myself to eat brains and lungs I have in the past eaten beef hearts. Tripe is eaten here at a phenomenal rate, usually in a rich tomato sauce, just recently I was given some whilst at a friends house and whilst I didnt enjoy the texture I ate it out of good manners. My friend asked me if English people eat a lot of offal and I had to say, I don't believe we do.

But I was wondering, do any of you guys eat offal?

Maybe it is purely a cultural/class thing? Maybe the eating of offal doesnt travel so well over the pond, one thing I do know is Toby loves to join me when I am tucking in.

Meldrew79

I had an idea, but had to look up exactly what offal meant. I would be pretty squeamish to try any of it honestly! Not something that we eat much of around here, although I know a couple people that like liver and onions. Yuck!

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lestat1978

I love eating the turkey heart at Thanksgiving. Almost everyone I know thinks it's gross. I, of course, then make a big production of it. Mmmmm...

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JenBo21

I absolutely love offal meat. We buy a side of beef every year and I ask for every bit edible and usually end up with extras that other people didn't want. My favorites are the sweetbreads. One of my favorite comfort foods growing up was chicken gizzards and dumplings.

When we travel to the UK we love to eat at Fergus Henderson's restaurant, St. John, in London. He is one of the best nose to tail cooks. I also love some of the offal focused restaurants in Paris.

dobermama

I grew up on a farm, and we had our own animals butchered so we did eat some offal. Chicken livers I liked, but the rest of it not at all! My Dad used to love liver & tongue.

The small rural school district I am from used to have brain sandwiches as the big "draw" for their community fair. They looked & smelled disgusting, so I never even tried one. When CWD/BSE (prion diseases which reside in brain & spinal cord) came about here in the states they were no longer allowed to do it. They still complain, BITTERLY, and have been told if they switch to swine that are locally raised they are good to go again. Yuck.

falnfenix

the only offal meal i've ever enjoyed is dinuguan. it's so good, but i won't cook it because it makes the house reek.

4Dobes

My partner loves haggis...yuk !!
He would eat it for breakfast, dinner, tea and supper if I let him.
He likes it made the traditional way too..... Made with the stomach lining of a sheep.

It's burns night ( January 25th ) and all his family will come round to have a haggis supper where they "address the haggis"
Scottish tradition of reciting Robby Burns poem as the haggis is brought in to the room on a silver platter.

Very strange but one hell of a night of traditional Scottish fare and whisky.


Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach.

Just so you can see how we celebrate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburn...ng_order.shtml



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Toby'shuman

Mmmm, Haggis, I haven't made one in years, now there is a meal I can make for my Spanish friends, lol! But where to get a sheeps stomach, now that is the question?

Do you guys ever use the phrase, 'To eat Humble Pie?'
Whilst it is mean to signify apologising even in the face of serious loss of face did you guys know it is actually a pie.

The expression derives from umble pie, which was a pie filled with the chopped or minced parts of a beast's 'pluck' - the heart, liver, lungs or 'lights' and kidneys, especially of deer but often other meats. Umble evolved from numble, (after the French nomble) meaning 'deer's innards'

I often make sausages using the intestines of the pig as the casings. (I hate having to clean them but they are so much tastier than the synthetic type)

I guess the eating of offal isn't that popular.

Beaumont67

I haven't thrown up my lunch yet, so I will post now...LOL.

On the farm, my father liked:
- blood sausage What Is Blood Sausage?
- head cheeze Head cheese - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- minced meat pie
- turkey heart
- grizzle running through a steak or a beef roast
- roasted pig tails How To Cook Pig Tails | Serious Eats
- roasted turkey necks Roast Some Turkey Necks for Awesome Stock - Home Ec 101
As kids, Dad (German) always ate our meat fat, until the family got a farm dog.

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Blood sausages are links of pork or other meats mixed with blood, which gives them their distinctive dark color. This type of sausage is made in countries all over the world and goes by names such as blutwurst in Germany, boudin noir in France and morcilla in Spain. In the southern United States, these spicy sausages are popular and can be found at many restaurants and roadside stands. Blood sausage has been made for thousands of years and was even written about by the ancient Greek poet Homer.
Rich Flavor -This type of sausage is distasteful to some consumers because of the blood content, which is perceived as unpleasant or offensive. When made properly, however, blood sausage should not have the metallic taste that many people link with blood. Instead, it has a rich and complex flavor that many people consider to be delicious alone or as a complement to soups, stews and other dishes.

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Head cheese (AmE), or brawn (BrE), is a cold cut that originated in Europe. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Head cheese is not a cheese but a terrine or meat jelly made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig (sometimes a sheep or cow), and often set in aspic. Which parts of the head are used can vary, but the brain, eyes, and ears are usually removed. The tongue, and sometimes even the feet and heart, may be included.
Head cheese may be flavored with onion, black pepper, allspice, bay leaf, salt, and vinegar. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat. It can also be made from quality trimmings from pork and veal, adding gelatin to the stock as a binder.
Historically, meat jellies were made of the cleaned (all organs removed) head of the animal, which was simmered to produce stock, a peasant food made since the Middle Ages. When cooled, the stock congeals because of the natural gelatin found in the skull. The aspic may need additional gelatin, or more often, reduction to set properly.

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ellenm

In short: NO! I don't even eat sushi!

Just reading this thread made me feel squeamish!

Toby'shuman

Beaumont, your old dad sounds just like mine.

We eat Black Pudding (blood sausage) here in Spain, (morcilla) though I prefer to make my own rather than buy it in.

Brawn, oh my, I always thought that, that was a perculiarity of us Northern Brits, but it seems it made its way over the pond to good old Canada too. It is really hard to get hold of a pigs head here, they tend to slice it up and serve it seperately, so I haven't made any Brawn in years.

I do make Pork Pies, using every little bit of pork that you probably wouldnt want to see on a plate, boiling up the pigs feet for the gelatine or jelly as it is known. The 'hot water salt crust' is really crispy whilst the meat in side is solid with a jelly top is truly a treat. (my grandmother used to say, 'you use everything save the squeel off a pig' and she was right.

As for the fat off the meat, oh how I love the fat off a nice piece of meat.

Crackling, (roasted pig skin) coated in salt is a firm favourite in our house, unfortunately the Spanish don't leave it on the pork joint, instead they cut it off and sell it seperately, hence why I want my own pigs. So for the most part I have to improvise, make do and overcome as they say in order to serve it to my family.

4Dobes

Yes my better half does the black pudding too !!!
He loves a black pudding sandwich for breakfast.
Disgusting !!


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falnfenix

not all sushi is raw. there's plenty of vegetarian and cooked sushi rolls to be had.

Rosemary

I've always prefered to eat the "outards", rather than the "innards". Funny thing, even though I hate liver, I love liverwurst.

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Amelia_

Yuccckkk! Im vegetarian so dont eat any meat, but yuccckkk! LOL

Some of the guys at my old work were from Ghana and they ate a lot of offal, I remember them eating pig nose curry

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Toby'shuman

Fried pig nose is a delicacy here, if they serve it to you, you are considered an honoured guest. I personally am not fond of being able to tell what part of an animal it comes from. Lets face it, a piece of liver doesnt look like anything save a brownish lump, but a pigs snout, erm, no spank you.

When we lived in Saudi we were invited to a wedding (women and men are seperated at all times) well during the feast they brought in a sheeps head, roasted of course. Seeing it really upset me. I mean I love roast lamb, even Mutton in a curry, but a sheeps head, stuck on a platter.

Amelia_

Ive noticed they have a lot of animal parts on display in Spain too? Like, on a market store in Barcelona they had a great big pigs head and all the trotters hanging up!

An old friend bought a little monkey which was destined for the cooking pot in India (had to get a wild animal license and everything!) She says they drop them alive into boiling hot mud, then take them out and allow them to dry to when they pick the mud off it picks the hair off too, and they say the brains are the best bit! Little monkey lived in a hammock in her living room

Me, just making liver cake makes me want to vomit!

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ellenm

I hate the taste of seaweed...hard to get away from in Japanese cuisine! (Hubby is Japanese American) I have tried seaweed in many forms, but to me it is the same taste as going out in the ocean and gnawing on a jetty!

Weird in that I love Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese cooking very much. Too many things rare and raw in Japanese cuisine for me...but I do make an awesome ginger chicken and like to roll sushi, just not eat it!

lolonurse

My grandmother made a dish called miltz. It was the spleen of the cow, and the insides were scraped out, combined with potato, mashed and put back into the spleen's casing and baked. It had an incredibly delicate flavor and wonderful texture, like a potato kugel (which is probably meaningless to most, as it is a traditional Jewish dish. My mother came from Hamburg, Germany - there were several cattle dealers and butchers/meat processors in the family, in Germany and then in New York - we had the MOST amazing wursts, hot dogs, salamis and such. Haven't ever had such gourmet ones since. They also made head cheese, but from cow, as they were kosher.

Until I had a Greek Jewish boyfriend in high school, I had never had brains, because German jews, as far as I know, didn't eat that. It was delicious. Perhaps my very favorite was tongue... incredibly tender and flavorful. But then I became vegetarian for a long time - now I eat meat, and do enjoy liver, but have never been able to bring myself to go back to some of the old things. (plus I have NO idea how to make miltz, or I might try, if I could find a spleen...)

Never ate eyes, NEVER would try "prairie oysters" - testicles of any animal! Don't want to ever try any feet, noses! oh - and kidney... the thought grosses me out!

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falnfenix

try very thinly sliced cucumber or carrot instead of nori?