Organs and offal

[Deleted]

Some of us love this stuff while others are totally repelled.

And some like some, but not all, offal.

Is it the taste, bad or good experiences as a child, or something you can't explain?

[bixaorellana]

Offal I don't like: heart. It tastes metallic.

I've never eaten brains as far as I know, and sweetbreads are just blah.

I like beef liver, kidneys, tripe, chitterlings, chicken liver & gizzards.

[Deleted]

I have always eaten all of it, because it was a standard part of the family diet.

In modern times, in the "developed" world, kidneys have almost no odor, but I remember from my childhood the strong smell of urine when my grandmother would be rinsing them with vinegar and whatever other methods she used. Strangely enough, this did not repel me, because I knew how delicious the dish would taste when it was cooked.

[bazfaz]

Sweetbreads with a mushroom and cream sauce are divine. What a shame the sweetbreads are so expensive here.
I have only had heart once. It was years ago in a friend's house in England. She had cooked it in a pressure cooker. It was ghastly, British cooking at its worst.

[tillystar]

Not a huge fan. Generally I wouldn't go out of my way to have the stuff.

I only had brain once, it was vile. I didn't know it was brain I was eating so it wasn't knowing that it was that put me off. It. was. just. nasty. Couldn't handle the texture of tripe.

I also only had heart once, it was delicious and I love sweetbreads. Not a liver or kidney fan but I did love my grandma's liver and bacon, but I have never had one the measured up and I have tried.

Recently we were at my Mum's for dinner and she had made some liver casserole (not sure what she was thinking) and I was struggling to eat it. Luckily it turns out lil star loves the stuff and so I kept sneaking it onto her tray, good that she can make herself useful

[Deleted]

I think the only organ that I have eaten just once in my life was udder. It tasted fine, but it is just a very rare item to find on a menu.

I have eaten testicles a few times, which are more acceptable under one of their alternate French names -- "white kidneys" -- and are quite similar to kidneys although I have had them prepared differently: sliced and rolled in flour and salt and pepper, and then sauteed in a cream and white wine sauce.

I just hope that the people who are put off by such items never eat hot dogs or most other sausages.

[tillystar]

I don't mind eating it in sausages and hotdogs, as long as it doesn't taste offal.

I forgot about tongue. I have to confess I wasn't brave enough to try it when someone I was eating with had ordered it and offered me a bite. Its the imagined texture that put me off.

[bazfaz]

I try to avoid tripe. And andouille and andouillette - I try them bravely every few years to see if I like them any better. The answer is no.

[hwinpp]

I like it. Regardless from which animal. I love tripe curry. You can cook the tripe until it's really soft and the taste gets better and better.
There's a place in Siem Reap where I'd regularly have tripes a la mode de Caen, and a huge portion it was.

[bazfaz]

Obviously that is a left over from French colonial days.
I have been on outing's with Mrs Faz's choir. While the 2 British members of the choir (plus their husbands) resolutely stick to the roast lamb option, many of the French clamour for tripe.

[bixaorellana]

I love tripe. Tripe curry, huh? Hmmmmmm.

From the posts above, I see I left out tongue and blood sausage from the list of things I like. I've had udder in tacos & was unimpressed, but that may have been because of the method of preparation. I've also had bulls testicles, which were okay, but I'd never go out of my way for them.

[gringalais]

I'm not a fan unless, as someone else said, in sausage where it is disguised. Once my friend's brother, who is a chef, made some anticuchos from beef heart that were surprisingly tasty. I think it was all the spices and preparation that made them tasty. Prepared in another way I doubt I would have liked them.

[tillystar]

Oh yes, Bixa! I was going to mention blood sausage but I wasn't sure if it counted here.

I love love love black pudding and also morcilla. We eat black pudding often at home.

[palesa]

S'cuse me, is there anyway in which one can hide a thread they don't want to see? I get queasy at the thought of any food and here you all are talking about offal and organs.

*vomits on laptop*

[Deleted]

Who was the "Just Say No" person? Nancy Reagan?

"Just Don't Click."

[palesa]

A bit tricky if you are using the 80 posts function.

[BigIain]

Offal is not food. I would rather have tofu than any of this crap.

[Don Cuevas]

I'll eat and enjoy tongue, liver, chicken livers; sweetbreads and kidneys have had only once. The sweetbreads were grilled on "swords", Brazilian fashion, but were way too salty. The kidneys were part of a parillada mixta in a cheap Argentine restaurant in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. We couldn't eat any more after a few bites.

None of this is too good if eaten often. My favorite is sauteed or grilled beef liver with heaps of fried onions. Mashed pots on the side. Bring the steak sauce and ketchup, thanks.

[bixaorellana]

I thought of more innards I eat! Yeah, I know everyone is waiting with bated breath for me to add to the list.

I had my usual market day meal of two tacos of mixed pork parts. When the lady put a portion of meat on the chopping block, one of the items was a sort of fleshy curly-cue -- like a scrunchy unfurled. I asked what it was & was told "nana" -- sow's teats. I'd eaten them before & didn't care for them, but these were good. God only knows what comes in the rest of the mix.

[hwinpp]

What are sweetbreads?

One of my favourite places in Hanoi is a 'lau' restaurant. It's a place where you prepare your stuff at the table. This one specialises in goat, therefore 'lau de'.
The first part is the BBQ, the second part is the steamboat.

When I go there I always order 'goat tit'. The VNese waiters aren't a very refined bunch, that's exactly what they say...

[Deleted]

Sweetbreads are the spleen or some such. (What is a spleen anyway?)

[bixaorellana]

The spleen is the organ of the body that explodes if you stand too close to the microwave when it's on.

I think sweetbreads are the thymus. *goes off to look*

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure body organs are not interchangeable.

[bixaorellana]

Well, here's the straight poop: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetbread.

I defy you to read it without laughing. My favorite part is "There is a lot of debate about whether or not the pancreas can be considered sweetbreads." Oh yeah -- lots of debate. Why, I've had to stop attending social gatherings because it seems like at every one at least one fight breaks out over the burning pancreas question.

[Deleted]

I don't know what any of those organs are for anyway. All I know about the pancreas is that if you get pancreatic cancer, you have about 2 months to say goodbye to everybody.

[bixaorellana]

My theory about organs and blood and stuff: if they were meant to be seen & thought about, they wouldn't be all neatly covered by that big envelope, would they?

[BigIain]

*grins hugely*... "Explodes if you stand too close to the Microwave" Brilliant!

[Deleted]

Liver, kidneys, tripe, heart, sweetbreads, snout... (etc.)

They're all fabulous, but what are your personal favorites and how do you prepare them?

I have never had a tripe salad, but this one looks excellent.

[bixaorellana]

I like liver pretty plain -- lightly cooked with both grilled and raw onions. Tripe is good every way I've ever had it. I mostly fix it as menudo, but lately have had a craving for it in tomato sauce or in milk. Never thought about tripe salad, but the picture looks good. I don't care for heart -- it has a metallic taste. Not big on sweetbreads either, I find them boring. I've had bull's balls, the texture is too soft for my taste. I love chicken gizzards & hearts & livers, especially cooked down in chicken fat. Don't care for chicken feet that much. Snout, etc. -- I got hogshead cheese at the market, cubed it, and mixed it with chopped basil, white onion, & vinegar. Good! I have some blood sausage in the fridge right now -- that would be offal, right?
I usually fry it and have it on tacos with onion & chopped chile.

[bazfaz]

We had calf's liver on Friday night. Usually it is the most expensive piece of meat you can buy around here. Mysteriously Provences Halles, a small (local?) chain which opened near here had some delicious calf's liver at one third the price. I fry it in a little olive oil and like it served with capers and chopped parsley. I had it that way once when I was on a walking holiday going down the Dordogne river from its source.
Tripe is something I try to avoid. The French love it. I tagged along on an outing of Mrs Faz's choir. At lunch there was a choice of roast leg of lamb or tripe. A substatntial proportion of the French opted for the tripe.
In England I used to buy frozen New Zealand lamb's sweetbreads until Waitrose stopped stocking them. No demand, the manager said when I asked him why. I normally cooked them in white wine and aromatics then finished them off with a cream and mushroom sauce. Another delicious way is to take the cooked sweetbreads and put them in a frying pan with a little butter and add marsala, a little, and when this has cooked off add a little more. Do this about half a dozen times and the sweetbreads have a delicious sticky-sweetish (but not too much) coating.
It is time I made some more chicken liver pate.
And there is a stall in St Pons market that makes the most wonderful pork liver pate from the Aveyron.
A surprising number of visitors from Britain say they will not eat offal. This includes my alcoholic cousin. I have a little menu in the kitchen of what we'll be eating over the next 3 or 4 days (this is not pretentious - the other side of the paper is the shopping list of what I need to buy). If my cousin is outstaying his welcome I just have to put kidneys on the menu and he finds urgent business that takes him back to London.

[Deleted]

Most people will eat offal if it is disguised -- it is the idea of it that seems to disturb them. I think that many American visitors to France have become reconciled with gizzards after having them sliced in a salad.