Offal

[Adam_Balic]

I have read that you are not adverse to the odd piggy bit or two, so hopefully you can answer this! Offal often shows up in restaurant menus, but doesn't seem to be popular for home cooking, or at least is rarely promoted, especially by TV cooks (eg. no Pukka calves liver, luvly jubly). Do you think that this will ever change? What is it about offal that results in people spending 20 quid on some calf liver and onions at a restaurant, but won't spend two quid to cook the same thing at home?

[bourdain]

Too many people have bad memories of Mom insisting that they eat ineptly prepared liver as a duty--because "It's good for you!" Many, who grew up in poor households do not have fond memories of chitterlings or guts of any kind as it brings to mind harder times. And because since post war years--Americans have had very limited exposure to offal--because they didn't have to see it. A newly wealthy country, the US pretty much banished the good stuff from shelves in favor of boneless chicken breast, sirloin and "branded" cuts. The guts went to our burgeoning market for cats and dogs. It's a shame. If you look at old American menus from the turn of the century, we used to eat like heros. Nearly every menu began with raw shellfish, terrapin soup..and included game and offal course, ox hearts, brains, tripes, kidneys or the like. Mario B has it exactly right when he again and again points out that greart cuisines grew up from poverty and very real ecomonic needs. When that need disappears, so does the need (and cooking skills) required to deal brilliantly with the "nasty bits". Now, we only eat the hoocves and snouts an guts when they cost a lot and are made to look pretty in fancy restaurants with name chefs--as if it's exotica.

[John Whiting]

Put that paragraph where you can find it later for a book -- good stuff. And check out the chapter "Counting the Cost" in A.J. Liebling's _Between Meals_.

[talentedone]

Some ethnic people even in the US eat these.

It may be fun to explore what some of the ethnic members can say about how to cook with them.

Bourdain is correct about us losing touch with a need to be savvy.  We now live lives that are far removed from any sense of frugality.

We even waste money making crudites fancy foods.

[Jonathan Day]

A lot of people who might not avoid offal now do so because they are terrified of the cholesterol it is supposed to contain. One bite of liver and the arteries shut down forever, etc. The same people will scarf up processed cheese and put thick layers of margarine on bread, but they won't touch sweetbreads. Similar effect a few years ago from BSE, putting bone marrow off the menu for many.

[Sandra Levine]

I would still make liver at home (my fegato veneziana was the best -- if I had a reliable source of organic veal.  Liver is de-toxifying organ and I'm afraid of what I'd be ingesting in the liver of a conventionally-raised animal.

[Toby]

I make ponce -- pork stomach stuffed with fresh chaurice sausage and green peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, lots of cayenne and then browned and stewed for a long time -- it's like a spicy pate in a football, and you can get the pork stomachs really cheap in Chinatown.

Toby

[Adam_Balic]

Toby, Hmmm interesting recipe (do you do anything with those pig wombs you can also get?), but some people (Simon) may find the thought eating the dish offensive because it smacks of cannibalism.

Tony - can I just say how much I have enjoyed your comments on this site. I am now kicking myself that I didn't come and shake you hand like a giddy schoolgirl when you were doing a book signing in Edinburgh.

[Toby]

Adam, as a matter of fact, I've cooked (with Laotian friends) what I guess you'd call the Laotian national noodle dish, khao poon, which in its very authentic state is made with pork (or cow's) uterus served over skinny rice noodles with lots of garnishes.  Uterus gets cooked for some time with coconut milk, fish sauce, red pepper paste, lime leaf, but still, it was chewy.

[bourdain]

Had marinated grilled uterus in Tokyo--at a Korean steakhouse. Spicy--deelish. But a little chewy..

[Toby]

More pork stomach -- a taqueria on Mission between 21st and 22nd streets in San Francisco did pork stomach (buche) burritos that were unbelievably good -- chopped pork stomach, yellow rice, black beans, avocado, melted jack cheese, onions, cilantro and tomatillo salsa.  There's a recipe for Mexican pork stomach in a book called Innards -- I think they basically confit it in deep pork fat.

Are pig ears considered offal? Or is offal only inside stuff?  Great oxtail and pig ear stew in a Richard Olney book -- lovely sticky substances.  What about those outside stuff like ears and tails and jowls and feet and ...

[Adam_Balic]

Toby - those meals sound terrific! I must go down to my local pig uterus emporium and get some! I was interested in uterus as food, as a large proportion of the high status food described in Roman literature I have read is pig's uterus. Lacking any Roman recipes, maybe I should try something south-east asian (at least the fish sauce would provide continuity). Chewy is OK, I like chewy, but good chewy not tough chewy. My favorite Vietnamese Pho is Beef tendon with beef balls, all chewy, but so good.

[Wilfrid]

Toby - the pig's stomachs.  Would that be in New York's Chinatown, or a different one, and can you possibly give me some more directions if it is New York?  Thanks.

Offal, I would say, covers all the odds and ends of the animal which are typically discarded, so head, tail, ears, nose are all included.  This is one reason why the American term "organ meats" which one so often hears is inadequate as well as euphemistic.

[g.johnson]

Etymology: Middle English, from of (off) + fall, i.e., detritus or waste product.

[Wilfrid]

Spot on.  And the word is also used in manufacturing industries for similar waste.

[Jinmyo]

"Variety meats".

[Toby]

Wilfred, New York Chinatown.  Most of the meat stores carry it -- there's a nice one on Bayard between Mott and Elizabeth, another on Mulberry -- 89 Mulberry I think it is.  They might not be marked in English as such, but they're sort  of white and tan and football shaped and should be under $1/pound.  What I do is soak them in white vinegar for a while (they have a slightly strong smell) and try to pick off the bits of fat sticking to the inside.  If you like, I can give you the recipe I make -- I've been evolving it for years, and have actually made several good friends through it.  Also, if anyone's interested in how to make khao poon (you can also make it with chicken) or chicken feet gumbo (see chicken feet thread -- I don't know how to link it), I'll post them.  If anyone knows about Laotian food, please tell me.  It's the weirdest food, some wonderful and some really terrible.

Does anyone have any good recipes for Puerto Rican cuchifrito, which is made with all things strange.  There are two methods of doing it -- one is deep fried, but the other is sort of stewed in a thin red (very hot pepper) sauce and served with boiled green bananas.  There's a place on 116th St. (NY) between 3rd and Lexington that's open very late at night that has it for take out and it's so delicious.  If anyone knows how to make the stewed version, please tell me -- I used to know and I've forgotten.

The Puerto Ricans and Dominicans also make a great stew called sancocho which uses salted pigs feet (which cook up really velvety) and pig's stomach and fresh bacon and different root vegetables (yautia, name) and green platanos and corn that is wonderful in winter.

I was a very poor student for a long time so I ate well on innards.  I might be able to dredge up a few more.  Also, is there a sausage thread?

[La Niña]

I love this meat called, in Arabic, "biz."  It's cow udder.  They cut off the nipples but you can still see the "stubs," and it's usually got milk all over it.  You cut it up, put it on skewers, and grill it.  Sweet, whitish meat.  Yum.  Middle eastern delicacy, particularly Moroccan.  Have had it in Israel.  Can't get it here, boo hoo, although once an ex brought a kilo back from Israel in dry ice.

[Jinmyo]

Nina, what kind of seasoning or spices do you remember with this?

[La Niña]

When we grilled it here, just a little olive oil and salt and pepper, and grilled it.  Served with some tahini.

[SobaAddict70]

you know, I've never had chitlins (chitterlings). most ppl I know dunk lots of hot sauce on them, presumably to kill the taste of whatever might be left inside.

Anyone have experiences with them? Is this something you have to travel down South for, or are there good/passable versions here in NYC?

As someone who likes dinuguan (a Filipino stew composed of pork, beef hearts, pig's ears, liver, chicken gizzard, pig's blood, vinegar, garlic and chilies; in fact its one of the few Filip. dishes that's made with chilies and gets better the second or third day ahead), I am definitely no stranger to organ meats. hehehe Then there was the time I ordered tripe soup at Little Poland (a restaurant on Second Avenue in the Village), much to the chagrin of some of my friends, a little tidbit that they will never ever let me forget to this day...

[Wilfrid]

I was holding back while this thread was part of the Bourdain Q and A, and now I hardly know where to start. Deep breath...

Chitterlings

Chitterlings are pig's intestines. I have never seen the southern style chitterlings in downtown Manhattan restaurants - maybe you can get them in Harlem. However, pig's intestines cooked Chinese style are certainly available in Chinatown, in restaurants, or in meat stores. The store Toby mentioned (for pig's stomachs) on Bayard between Mott and Elizabeth is offal heaven: pig's bungs, tripes, various feet, lungs, the lot - I should've guessed that's where the stomachs were.

Pig's intestines, simply braised, and served in coils looking very much like what they in fact are, are also available from Dominican outlets. Called tripitas, these are really a street food, by which I mean you are less likely to find them in Dominican restaurants than at a food stalls, or the lorries which park under El's up in Washington Heights and the South Bronx and serve all kinds of good carne.

Cuchifritos

A generic term used by Puerto Ricans to designate offal snacks - usually, if not exclusively, from the pig. If a Puerto Rican restaurant sells this stuff, you'll usually see it being kept warm in a glass display near the window. Available in Dominican restaurants too, where it is called pica longa.Yeah, pig's ears, tongue, cheek (buco), crackling, and so on. I am intrigued by Toby's reference to cuchifritos in a spicy red sauce with green bananas (actually green plantains, to be pedantic). Deep fried cuchifritos is surely the norm. Toby, could you be referring to mofongo, where various meats are mashed with green plantains in a pestle? Puerto Ricans occasionally serve this with a spicy red sauce; Dominicans almost wholly eschew spicy food.

Sancocho

As a Dominican dish, Sancocho is a broth with all kinds of goodies floating in it. Traditionally, it should include seven different meats to give it flavour: chicken or gallina - a delicious darker fleshed wild chicken, which seems to be to be guinea fowl or a close relation - is obligatory. Other meats can include longaniza, a garlicky, rustic pork sausage, pig's cheek, pig's stomach (as Toby says), and usually some smoked pork. A marrow bone is a prized ingredient too. Mi esposa, who is Dominican, is sceptical about the use of a salted pig's foot - she says preserving meat in salt is not a common practice in Puerto Rico or the DR - but that's not to say people aren't making it that way.

Well, unglue my lips

[Jinmyo]

Pigs, pigs, pigs.

Let's face it: Whether crackling, roasts, chops, or guts, pork is the most interesting meat all 'round. Yes, lamb kidneys are great. Veal liver is finer. Beef marrow is sublime. But all 'round it always comes back to pork.

Wondrous wondrous pork.

[Rhea_S]

SobaAddict: If you like dinuguan, you might like bopis. It's minced pig hearts and lungs cooked in a spicy, vinegar sauce. It's one of my favourite Filipino dishes although I only eat it once a year with lots of rice.

[SobaAddict70]

Why only once a year? It can't be that difficult to make....

Where in the world do you get pig's lungs, and what do they look like? Got a recipe?

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Do beef cheeks qualify as "offal"? Where does one get some? Are they gross to look at? hehe