Cooking (and eating) spleen

[kerriar]

In my fridge I have two (pieces, rolls, whatever) of veal spleen which my butcher gave me this evening - they come, like all his meals from high quality, fuly traceable organic sources but I think he threw them in for free because they are slow sellers.

I've found a couple of Italian recipes which produce a kind of paté to be spread on crostini but they are a bit vague - no details of how long to cook and what temperature as well as some references to removing the skin which don't seem to make sense.

Any experiences or suggestions?

[budrichard]

I have never heard or read of spleen being used for human consumption. I use just about every part of an animal but not spleen.-Dick

[mrbigjas]

spleen is used in several kinds of sandwiches in italy

pane ca meuza described here

good old about.com has a recipe for crostini di milza here

googling 'italy spleen recipe' or 'spleen panini' turns up a lot.

[eje]

Chris Cosentino at Incanto is a big offal fan. A while ago I ordered a stew dish there and they mentioned some grilled something or other in Italian would be included with it.

Anyway, there was this grilled, rich, liver-like substance on my plate that was pretty tasty. I knew it was some internal organ; but, had no idea which.

After I finished, I asked what it had been, and the waiter told me it was spleen.

I read a chowhound post from someone that had been at Incanto the same week who was furious he had been fed "dog food".

[aliénor]

about twenty or so years ago we owned a farm with two other couples. we were in our back to the earth mode. we raised pigs and chickens and grew almost all of our own vegetables. our piglets were bought in june, fed all summer and ready for slaughter in november. an itinerant butcher came by to slaughter and we all did the cutting and packaging. i wanted to use all of the pig so we took the spleen and also the lung for a meal. i cooked the spleen en brochette. it was rich and not at all like s\a steak or chop-not muscular at all, but definitely an acquired taste. as for the lungs..... i had had them as a child as my grandmotherr coooked veal lungs every so often. i did not like them then and culdn't make myself like them this time around. but i would do the spleen again-it was interesting.

we also made leaf lard, scrapple and our own soap. those were the days. now i go to the local farmerr and let them do all that work and it is worth paying for it.

[kerriar]

Thanks for the useful comments, including the slightly shocked one from budrichard. What I have learned is as follows:

- cooked spleen is a popular street food in Italy, in particular in Sicily.

- spleen is one of the ingedients in the classic Greek easter Saturday night soup served after mid-night mass. This I have eaten, so somewhat to my surprise I have already eaten spleen.

- spleen is routinely used by butchers in mince since it adds a bright red colour naturally so probably many of us have eaten it without realising it.

In the end we did cook the two pieces of spleen and gave them to Coko the dog who was very happy.

Point of info - she (!) is named after Joe Rokocoko, the All-Black winger.