Offal

[Wilfrid]

I am in two minds about whether cheeks qualify as offal, but I think I am going to say yes - I think head meat in general does. As for getting pig's lungs, I am sure the meat market on the south side of Bayard between Elizabeth and Mott, mentioned by Toby earlier, will supply any pig parts you could desire. I think I've seen lungs there. In Barcelona, of course, the specialist offal stalls in the markets offer huge displays of lungs, and there's no mistaking them once you see them. They look like, well, lungs.

[Toby]

Wilfrid, was it your suggestion to move this into its own thread? If so, thanks, this is great.

I think I mentioned an old cookbook called Innards and Other Variety Meats by Jana Allen and Margaret Gin, 101 Productions, San Francisco, 1974 that is a trove of information on this topic, with good instructions on how to clean various parts. They have a glorious recipe for crisp roasted pig's head with oyster sauce, bourbon and honey. (Does anyone know where to get pigs' head in NY?)

Actually I know almost nothing about Dominican food and only a bit about Puerto Rican food. I used to be able to get salted pig feet at Puerto Rican meat stores around Ludlow, Forsythe, but I bet they've been gentrified out of existence. Dominican sancocho sounds so delicious. No, mofongo is different than stewed-type cuchifrito. And, I think they really use green bananas -- they're left whole and they're too small to be platanos.

I love pork more than anything, but I've read recipes and descriptions for some sort of stew made with lamb insides in Greece? Maybe in Wright's Mediterranean book? Any idea where to get that? Queens? 9th Avenue? The butchers on 9th Avenue?

And what about tongue? I thought it was gross when I was a kid, but I had some in a port and raisin sauce that changed my mind.

[LaNiña]

Ali of Kabab Cafe will make virtually any part of a sheep you ask him to, if you give him notice. He's also made me beef cheeks several times. When I had that sheep's eyeball, the sheep's cheeks were part of the whole dish. Yum. His spleen dishes are really good dish, I like it better than kidneys.

And as for tongue - one of my favorite things. I made a Libyan recipe which is layers of potato slices, lemon slices, artichoke hearts, tongue, with lots of olive oil and turmeric, salt and pepper, and slow baked. Outta this world. Got it from Copeland Marks' "Sephardic Cooking."

[stellabella]

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

there's a soul food restaurant in Madison, GA, where the cook keeps a plate of chitlins on the line for anyone who wants them. Harold's famous bbq near the old prison in Atlanta serves cracklin cornbread. otherwise, these are foods i never see anymore.

i have loved chicken livers my whole life--either breaded and fried or roasted and marinated in EVOO & herbs, served chilled as an appetizer. my husband refuses to eat them because, as sandra points out, they are toxin repositories. my feeling is that, if i have the opportunity to eat them once or twice a year, i will.

the best bbq i have ever had is in selma, al, at laney's spot--the chopped pork sandwich is served with a huge slab of bark--freid pig skin. i couldn't believe i was eating this--but it was damn delicious. the tender juicy flesh and the chewy crispy skins worked fabulously together.

for me these foods are treats--they certainly aren't the most healthful but they are tasty.

[Toby]

Oh, this is making me drool.

[Wilfrid]

Me too.

I have never had chicken livers breaded and fried. Individuall? Or do you clump a few together and make fritters?

Toby, the cuchifrito stew requires more investigation. Me and my Beloved haven't come across it - I take your point about the small green bananas too.

Pig's head - Bayard Street again must be the first port of call: your one-stop pig shop (hmm, is that a new eGullet slogan?). As for lamb's insides, the Greek restaurant on Ninth, on the west wide - isn't it called Nick's - serves lamb intestines on skewers and lamb sweetbreads. They are probably sourcing them from one of the nearby butchers.

And by the way, newcomers here may need to know that the Bison meat stall at Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays will sell you a pair of testicles if you ask nicely. I have a pair in my freezer right now.

Hey - with the new search engine maybe I can find my testicle technique, which someone - was it Priscilla? - requested recently.

[Wilfrid]

It worked. This is one post I was quite pleased with, so let me quote it again for any offal lovers who joined since March and might have missed it:

"Just a few more tips on cooking the bison balls, in the event anyone feels like trying them. The versions sold at Union Square do come ready peeled, so that saves some trouble. The tricky thing is that these organs retain a great deal of moisture, and you can end up with a mushy result if you're not careful. In the past, I've tried packing them with salt to draw the moisture out. Trouble is, they seem to suck the salt in.

My technique with the bison bits was ad hoc, but worked. First I soaked them in water with a few drops of vinegar for about forty minutes, changing the water frequently. At this point, they are still oozing just a little blood, so you want to keep changing the water until it isn't pink any more. Drain them well. Then slice them into disks, as if you're slicing boiled eggs for a salad. Spread them out on absorbent paper, put another sheet on top and pat it down. Leave them for a while. You can repeat this until you get bored.

Then soften some chopped onions in oil, with some garlic if you like, celery - whatever. Throw your disks in and sautee them briskly. Guess what? More liquid leaches out. Drain it off. When they've changed colour and are looking a bit firmer, take them off the heat and reserve the whole mixture overnight in the fridge. Next day? Yes, more liquid. Drain it off. I gave them a final frying, checking the seasoning, and adding a little cream (some white wine or butter would have been good), for dinner on the second day. Sprinkled some chopped parsley on top - chives or chervil would be good. Now they came up firm, not mushy, and very tasty. I can see the Chicken McNugget analogy, but these are really much more interesting.

Enjoy. "

[Toby]

Wonderful post, Wilfrid. I was afraid someone was going to bring up testicles, but bison balls is just great. The disks. The liquid. The horror. The bison guy is there during the week also. I know he's there on either Monday or Wednesday (or both) and maybe Friday too. He's there a lot. (Off the subject, have you cooked any of his ground bison meat? He gave me one of his meatballs to eat and it was good and then I made some and mine came out just dry. I don't know what I did wrong or how to correct it. I think he used a lot of bread crumbs.)

I sometimes deep fry chicken livers when I fry chicken. Fry each by itself, not in clumps, with lots of salt and black pepper. One time I made a loaf of monkey bread with a potato dough (it was almost like a brioche there was so much butter in it) and we had leftover chicken livers eaten with bites of monkey bread (which is like bubble bread). I actually don't believe in cholesterol.

If the chicken livers come from free-range, maybe organic chickens, are the livers still toxic? Is it just that livers, by their function, are toxic?

[Jinmyo]

Jacques Pepin makes a wonderful salad using chicken bits. Slice the membrane from the giblets like skinning a fish. Saute in butter with garlic hearts, giblets, livers. Toss with frisee. Make the skin into crackling, crumble atop.

I've taken to using pork crackling as croutons with salad. Pig hearts are a bit big for it but a dice works well.

[stellabella]

If the chicken livers come from free-range, maybe organic chickens, are the livers still toxic?  Is it just that livers, by their function, are toxic?

i engaged my husband in another debate about this this morning--he insists that all organ meat is horrible. but my guess is that it's because of the polluting meat industry, largely, and that free-range organic fed meats are going to be cleaner throughout. all things in moderation, anyway.

chicken livers breaded and fried individually, as you say.

driving up 441 into NE Georgia today I saw a hand-painted sign advertising "Fresh Pork Skins"--didn't see the stand so we didn't stop. "Fresh", eh? As opposed to from a bag? I bet those are tasty!

[g.johnson]

Does anyone have any real evidence that the liver is any more toxic than other meat? It sounds to me, if you’ll forgive the technical jargon, like a load of bollocks. It’s true that one of the functions of the liver is to filter toxins out of the blood. But these toxins are then degraded and excreted as bile. It sounds unlikely that there would be significant accumulation of undegraded toxins since they would, presumably, destroy the liver.

[Priscilla]

Hey - with the new search engine maybe I can find my testicle technique, which someone - was it Priscilla? - requested recently.

Sounds good, and demonstrates inspiring commitment, your testicle technique, Wilfrid.

I have not cooked testicles at home, but in a roadhousey restaurant on the Central California coast once ate them sliced and breaded and deep-fried. Really good! Dense and rich inside, fried and seasoned outside, what's not to like. This place used the Rocky Mountain Oysters euphemism, which I think is kinda silly but I guess I can understand the reasoning.

Same evening had sweetbreads from the gargantuan mesquite grill, which were very very good, with really no right to be any good at all. Texture, flavor, everything, good. This place supposedly ran its own cattle on the adjoining pasture and if this was true I imagine freshness had a lot to do with the goodness of the sweetbreads.

When I have prepared sweetbreads at home I have soaked and blanched and weighted. I find it hard to believe that the roadhouse went through all that, (certainly could be wrong, though), so I have thought ever since that a really superfresh thymus gland can be thrown on a very hot grill and come up delicious, but have not tried it at home. Renewed interest in seeing for myself, hmmm.

My favorite taco at my favorite taco joint is cabeza, beef head, rich dark meat cooked to a fare-thee-well, with minced cilantro and white onion and incendiary green salsa. Mexican lime squeezed over. The Consort will sometimes get buche, pork stomach as aforementioned by Toby, but too too interminably chewy for me.

Oh tender delicious lamb liver, sliced and sauteed, and lamb kidneys as per Nero Wolfe, and justly-praised-here fried (and otherwise, too) chicken livers, and so on. I'd rather eat offal than regular cuts, most any day.

Priscilla

(Replaced an incorrect e with a d.)

[LaNiña]

Went to Ali's last night and had no offal

My companion wasn't up for it. But talked to Ali about doing another offal-only dinner. Shall we organize such a thing? I'd be happy to.

Edit: No offal, but dinner was great. Shrimp, a couple of different scallop preparations, duck, lamb shank....

[Kerouac1964]

After reading all the cool "other" meat dish ideas, I just had to tell of my first experience with head cheese.

I was on the Net a month or so ago, and surfed into a Cajun food site. So, I start scoping out the aligator sausage when I suddenly spot spicy and mild head cheese.

Just had to give them a shot. That meat order, overall was the best online gourmet meat purchase I've made all year!

I had chaurice, venison sausage, hickory smoked pork sausage and I discovered the mystery of Boudin. I liked Boudin so much in fact, I am going to buy a meat/grinder/stuffer next month to make it myself.

I ate the head cheese fried up with some scrambled eggs for breakfast.

My first impression: OH MY GOD! Where was this stuff in my college days when I would go out the night before and drink my self to into near alcohol poisoning! It was the perfect greasy-spoon breakfast after the night out!!

Will be attempting blood sausage soon, and when I find out how to roast/eat/prepare bone marrow...that's next on my culinary kinks and Kicks!!!

Eatin' Large in Sioux City, IA

Kerouac1964

[Jinmyo]

I liked Boudin so much in fact, I am going to buy a meat/grinder/stuffer next month to make it myself.

...

Will be attempting blood sausage soon, and when I find out how to roast/eat/prepare bone marrow...that's next on my culinary kinks and Kicks!!!

Kerouac1964, welcome.

Please let us know how this goes.

If you do a search I think you'll find some threads on boudin.

[stefanyb]

I have had cow's lung stew, but not for many years. Actually, upon inquiring, I was told that cow's lung cannot be sold anymore.

The texture of the lung is wonderful, juicy and more like the texture of a hot dog than a steak. Of course, I never cooked it myself but I'm craving it right now.

Anyone ever had it or cooked it?

[Suzanne F]

Just to let Wilfrid and others in NYC know: another source for "PIG UTERI FRESH" (as the label reads) and other such stuff is: Hong Kong Supermarket, at the corner of East Broadway and Allen Street. Great selection of oddments, fresh and dried, animal and vegetable (and ???).

And although this probably should be posted in the thread on closed restaurants, How's Bayou, the first restaurant where The Harrison is now, used to do the most delicious fried chicken livers -- whole, dipped in fried-chicken batter, served with cream gravy. I miss them so much.

I've also been told that lung cannot legally be sold. Or spleen (aka miltz, aka focaccia). However, I'm sure that for a price . . . something could be arranged somewhere. Just like ortolans.

[LaNiña]

Spleen is illegal? I have it at Kabab Cafe all the time...

[Suzanne F]

Well, either I was told wrong, or since I heard that it's been reaccepted into the polite world, or ... Actually, I'm glad to hear that. My mother used talk about how good it was, but I never got to try it. Now I can! Thanks.

[Wilfrid]

For New Yorkers, pig spleen sandwiches are still available at La Foaccacceria on First Avenue.

Nina: on the New York board, you mentioned marinated goose intestines at Funky Broome. Did you sample? Or did you at least get a peek at them?

[LaNiña]

Yes, I ate them. They were delicious. They looked a little like broad noodles, and a similar texture, though a bit more rubbery. Really good.

Another time there I had the crispy pork intestines, which I loathed. Actually tasted like manure. I had one bite, and forced myself to have another, and one more, and then gave up.

And believe you me, I eat just about anything

[LaNiña]

Oh yeah, there are good spleen sandwiches at Ferdinando's on Union St. in Carroll Gardens/Red Hook...

[Rhea_S]

Chicken livers are also good in a Thai green or red curry or braised in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaf and S&P. They actually sell fried chicken livers at the local KFC.

SobaAddict: I only eat the bopis once a year because it's not something I want to cook at home. It's one thing to eat offal; it's quite another to touch, clean and chop raw offal (except chicken livers). I've only eaten it at small Filipino takeout places in Vancouver. I found a recipe online that looks about right:

Bopis recipe

[Adam Balic]

I am in the final phase of planing my trip to Florence. I hope that it will be an orgy of offal eating. So far I have planned to eat:

- Trippa (tripe, from the side walk tripe stalls)

- Lampredotto (chitterlings, from the Central food market).

- Buristo (black pudding with pine nuts and candied citron/pumpkin)

- Soppressata (head cheese flavoured with fennel, lemon and pear)

- if I can get it; baby goats tongues cooked in sweet/sour sauce.

- all manner of chicken liver crostini thingys.

Have I missed anything?

[Wilfrid]

You should be able to get some spinal cord, if you keep your eyes open. I have forgotten the Italian name (although I had it memorized once for a trip to Rome).