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What's the organ that is connected to the gizzard?

Kent Wang

By Kent Wang
in Cooking

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Kent Wang

Kent Wang

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These are pretty soft and mushy, not what you would expect from the heart. I've had chicken hearts and they are of similar consistency to the gizzard. The only other organs would be liver, kidney and spleen, but since I've never heard of poultry kidney or spleen I'm thinking liver is a safe bet.

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rlibkind

rlibkind

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These are pretty soft and mushy, not what you would expect from the heart. I've had chicken hearts and they are of similar consistency to the gizzard. The only other organs would be liver, kidney and spleen, but since I've never heard of poultry kidney or spleen I'm thinking liver is a safe bet.

I've never heard of poultry spleens here in the U.S., but Dan Rogov says chicken spleens go into "Jerusalem Grill" which is quite a tasty mix with bits of this and that and seasoning.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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SheenaGreena

SheenaGreena

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I saw a package of frozen duck gizzards while shopping for groceries today and it made me think of you, kent!

At first I thought they were mini birds, but they turned out to be gizzards. I think they were supposed to be in the refridgerated section but someone decided to throw them in the freezer :angry:

BEARS, BEETS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
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Blue_Egg_Farmer

Blue_Egg_Farmer

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Love that chicken picture!!! very nice.

Anyway, I get to process my own chickens, ducks and geese.

Immediately on either side of the gizzard is the soft pink tubing, one end goes up and out of the body cavity to the crop.

The crop is the pouch infront of the chickens body that holds food until it is ready to be digested.

The other end of the tubing on the gizzard is connects into the liver, gallbladder and intestines.

The liver in a healthy bird is usually a nice dark reddish brown,divided into 3 lobes and pretty large, equal to or greater than the size of the gizzard, If the bird was ill the liver will be light or even grayish.

This is not counting foie gras which is totally different looking.

Tucked inbetween the lobes of the liver is the gallbladder, it is smallish (the tip of your little finger) and may look blackish or very dark green.

It contains a yellowish/greenish liquid called bile and is considered inedible. It needs to be removed from the liver carefully, if it leaks onto the meats it will instantly stain it and give it a bad taste.

After this whole grouping of gizzards the tubing from the liver on down and out is the intestines.

Back at the top of the chicken or duck separate from the liver stuff is the heart and lungs, the lungs are securely attached to the birds back, the heart loosely attached inbetween the lungs.

Back down to the bottom back of the carcass is the kidneys, some of the kidneys are removed but much of it is actually house under the back bones.

Edited by Blue_Egg_Farmer (log)
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DerekW

DerekW

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The grinding function would probably be enough to earn it a name of its own.

dictionary.com gives a derivation in English from the French word, and that back through a vulgar Latin term meaning 'cooked poultry innards' with a possible root in an old Persian word for liver. Who knew? Thanks for prompting me to look it up :smile:

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