Combining two of my interests – historical linguistics and stuffing my face with the bits of animals many people run away from – I have decided to attempt to clear up some confusion. Every website I look at has a different answer, few of them correct.
What is the difference between viscera, offal and giblets?
Viscera is from the Latin viscera, the plural of viscus, meaning “the soft contents of the principal cavities of the body; esp. the internal organs of the trunk; the entrails or bowels together with the heart, liver, lungs, etc.” internal being the operative word. Couldn’t be clearer, unless you aren’t sure what organs are! To my surprise the original meaning of organ is the musical one, although it meant any musical instrument as far back as 1000 AD.
The anatomical and culinary meaning didn’t turn up until the early 15th century and was defined as “a part of an animal or plant body adapted by its structure for a particular vital function, as digestion, respiration, excretion, reproduction, perception, etc.” So one would be justified in saying that the penis is an organ by dint of its reproductive ability but not viscera for want of being internal.
Testicles, too in many animals, but not in chickens and other poultry where the testicles are internal and therefore visceral organs.
‘Offal’ is derived from the English ‘off fall’. In our context, that means “the parts which are cut off in dressing the carcase of an animal killed for food; in earlier use applied mainly to the entrails; now, as a trade term, including the head and tail, as well as the kidneys, heart, tongue, liver, and other parts” so, anything except flesh in most modern western usage. In other words, the parts people have to be persuaded are food!
Although which parts that entails varies from culture to culture rendering the term almost meaningless. Sometimes it entails tails. My local supermarket sells penises of various animals and they have been cut off the carcase so here they are offal. In much of the USA and Europe they are awful.
Historically, the word is roughly concurrent with ‘viscera’ and there is a lot of overlap. I guess penises are viscera or offal depending on the softness!
“Giblets” is slightly older and originally (c 1300 AD) only applied to geese entrails. The word is from the French and meant ‘an unessential appendage’. Whether that includes penises falls under sexual politics and we don’t discuss politics of any kind here! In modern usage it tends to mean the liver, gizzard and hearts of poultry, but also often includes the neck which almost no one knows what to do with. 63.27% of people have cooked the plastic bag they came in, unaware it was there. 99% of poultry necks go to dog food. Except in China, where they go to me.
Usually, if you find a bag of giblets in a bird, unless you bought it direct from a poutry rearer, it won't be the parts from that particular bird. Indeed they may be from several different birds. But many suppliers have abandoned giblets altogether and only sell maybe the livers separately. China never included the giblets in a whole bird. They are too valuable and are always sold separately. Poultry penises are in short supply.
So that clears that up! You are welcome.
