Offal ideas [recipes and experience's with animal offal]

[basilchef]

Starting this thread because it needs to be done. If there was ever a rival to my beer making hobby, cooking with offal would definitely be it. Below is my epic feast from a few days ago... Lets begin!

 

[dinnerstick]

looks good in the happy valley. but what is it all?? love me some offal

 

[basilchef]

looks good in the happy valley. but what is it all?? love me some offal

Foi gras, black truffle mousse, old fashioned chicken liver mousse, duck liver farce, aged goat cheese brought back from france and a reclette with crispy fried onions, cornichone and pink lady apples. To the left is aceato-honey cider jam (with shallots) whole grain mustard and cornichone. It went well with my hop bursted IIPA and some jeffersons. My lady stayed classy with an 05 melbec blend from our favorite California vineyard.

 

[45_70sharps]

No offense and there is nothing wrong with eating that stuff but I don't eat the guts!
I've had people ask me many times if I packed the liver and heart out when I bring something home from hunting, but I just don't eat that stuff.

I've eaten tung and heart a few times. A little will last me for a very long time, and I just don't like the taste of liver. Someone cooks up liver and onion and I scrape the liver off the plate and eat the onion.

When it comes to cheese, there are lots of types out there but I've never been one for the strong tastes and smells of most of the "non American standard" cheese varieties. I'll try a lot of things if the smell doesn't put me off, but in the end I stick to fairly standard stuff.

 

[dinnerstick]

looks awesome, sounds awesome!!
i'll post a platter on here in reply at some point

 

[basilchef]

looks awesome, sounds awesome!!
i'll post a platter on here in reply at some point

Sounds great.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Chicken Hearts with Celery and Onions

1 lb. chicken hearts
3 large ribs celery- medium slices
1 rather small white or yellow onion (I suppose shallots would work as well)- minced
Shmaltz for sauteeing (I suppose you could use a mix of butter and olive oil)
adobo to taste
kosher salt and pepper to taste
White rice


First, rinse and quarter your hearts and shake out any blood. Soak for about an hour in salted water, and then rinse. Soak again in fresh unsalted water while you chop your onions and mince your celery.

Drain and pat dry with paper towels before rough chopping and seasoning liberally (the only way to season in New York *rimshot*) with adobo.

Heat your schmaltz and sautee your onions, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. Once they start to brown and get soft add your hearts and celery. Cook on high, shaking the pan occasionally. What you are going for is hearts that have a crispiness on the outside and are well cooked on the inside, and celery that is still crunchy and has "shrunk" a bit.

Serve over a bed of white rice that has been cooked with butter.

 

[basilchef]

Finally getting this thread moving in the right direction. Thank you.

 

[porcupine73]

mm those do look good. I'm trying to get more into offal. I normally eat chicken and beef liver and heart, and beef and lamb kidneys. I haven't gotten very fancy with them though, I just am pleased to be able to eat some. I have some frozen packages of lamb 'sweetbreads' but I haven't had a chance to prepare them.

Lots of people say they would never eat offal, but the thing is traditionally they were highly valued, and oftentimes that's the first things animals go for in a kill, which to me says something about their nutritive value. Cookbooks like Nourishing Traditions have a pretty good number of recipes.

I picked up a copy of Adelle Davis' Let's Cook it Right cookbook for Amazon. I don't agree with everything in it, but she has a lot of interesting recipes including use of brains and other organs and glands. I found this cookbook on my mother's shelf one time and I was surprised how completely different it is than cookbooks today even though it isn't that old - it's from the 1940's.

 

[basilchef]

mm those do look good. I'm trying to get more into offal. I normally eat chicken and beef liver and heart, and beef and lamb kidneys. I haven't gotten very fancy with them though, I just am pleased to be able to eat some. I have some frozen packages of lamb 'sweetbreads' but I haven't had a chance to prepare them.

Lots of people say they would never eat offal, but the thing is traditionally they were highly valued, and oftentimes that's the first things animals go for in a kill, which to me says something about their nutritive value. Cookbooks like Nourishing Traditions have a pretty good number of recipes.

I picked up a copy of Adelle Davis' Let's Cook it Right cookbook for Amazon. I don't agree with everything in it, but she has a lot of interesting recipes including use of brains and other organs and glands. I found this cookbook on my mother's shelf one time and I was surprised how completely different it is than cookbooks today even though it isn't that old - it's from the 1940's.

Sweet breads are one of my favorite things to eat! I like to poach them with lemon, thyme, onion, coriander and parsley. Then press them. Cut, flour then fry/saute them til crispy. Goes great with yam or sweet potato puree and pomegranate sauce (from the same animals stock) and fresh pomegranate.

 

[AndrewD]

Liver pate is fantastic. They just banned foie grois here in the People's Republic of California. Alaska looks better every day.

 

[basilchef]

Liver pate is fantastic. They just banned foie grois here in the People's Republic of California. Alaska looks better every day.

What!? Why?! Thats atrocious...

 

[gratus fermentatio]

While I have a tough time with most offal, I do love the heart: beef, pork, deer, chicken, turkey...
I never met a heart I didn't want to chew on.

I like to stir-fry beef heart, about 1.5lbs, (cut into roughly 3"x1/2" strips) with dark sesame oil, about 1/4 cup of fresh sliced ginger (matchstick sized), a couple cloves of minced garlic, 1 red Fresno chile (sliced matchstick size), 1/2 a handful of chopped fresh cilantro, 1 SWEET yellow onion (vidalia is the best IMHO), 1 tablespoon dried SWEET basil (crushed), if it doesn't say "sweet" on the label, it ain't.

After you've stir-fried the heart & other ingredients for a couple minutes, add a couple dashes (about 1/8 teaspoon) of ground nutmeg, 4 tablespoons soysauce & continue to stirfry (keep it moving at high heat) until the soy sauce starts to caramelize. Remove from heat & serve over rice with assorted favourite veggies. I usually do a stir-fried purple cabbage with tarragon & green onions and ginger glazed baby carrots (use plenty of real butter with the carrots). Sometimes I'll drizzle a little honey over it just before serving, though I'm thinking that a little LME might really work well in place of the honey, I haven't tried the LME yet, I just now thought of it.

It might sound a little odd, but I think it's pretty darned tasty, maybe ypou will too.
BTW Basilchef, what is the bread loaf looking thing on the right hand side of the pic, 1/2 on the top of the right hand cutting board? It looks quite tasty.
Regards, GF.

 

[Stout-n-Braggot]

Norman style stewed tripe/feet is good with a nice dry cidre, as is Andouillette sausage, and Andouille for that matter (I mean the real thing, made with intestines and stomach, not the cajun version which is little more than spiced ground pork). Any liver paté is good with medium to heavy bodied beers. So far the only offal dish I didn't care for was beef kidney, I'm wondering how much good St Emilion I would need to be able to like that one...
I enjoy frying up the occasional rabbit liver, or stir fry of chicken hearts and livers. My absolute favorite is duck Foie Gras with a 10 year old Bonnezeaux (best sweet white wine ever, beating out both Gewurztraminer and Sauternes)
I'm hoping to make some deer or pronghorn paté in the future to pair with a rye brown ale recipe i've been messing around with.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I'd like to try some traditional Norse/Germanic blood sausage (blutwurst) recipes, but it's tough to find blood sausage in MT. Though I remember some oldtimers in Indiana that used to make a sort of blood pudding that also had persimmons in it. It's been 40 years since I was back that way, but I remember the blood pudding tasted pretty good. I on;ly had it once though, but if an 8 year old kid liked it, it was probably tasty.
Regards, GF.

 

[emjay]

What!? Why?! Thats atrocious...

Ethical concerns regarding how ducks and geese are raised for foie gras. Literally translating from French to "fatty liver", in order to get the livers fatty and enlarged (up to ten times the size) they are force-fed for the few weeks before slaughter by shoving a pipe down their throat and pumping the feed straight into their stomach. The practice is bad for the health of the bird and is considered inhumane by many.

I got into hunting recently, but the only way I could get over the idea of killing animals was the fact that quickly killing a deer (or whatever) in the wild is without a doubt far more humane and ethical than modern factory farming practices. And it's hard for me to justify it that way if I support the absolute worst of these practices, so "real" foie gras just isn't for me, though I'm not about to get judgmental on those who just don't care. A duck killed at the right time - as it prepares for migration - is going to have a pretty fatty liver anyways (albeit not as fatty as force fed birds), and that's good enough for me.

 

[dinnerstick]

was in bergerac last year, got an amazing semi-sweet montbazillac from a small vineyard that we randomly stopped off at, and foie gras from the farm two doors down.... made up some fig red onion balsamic vinegar chutney.... holy schnit

 

[CreamyGoodness]

In your opinions, does oxtail count as offal?

 

[Subsailor]

Liver pate is fantastic. They just banned foie grois here in the People's Republic of California. Alaska looks better every day.

Too many Californicans up here now!
Seriously, we have good moose and caribou liver, heart, tongue and nose. I don't remember eating moose brains, they're so small anyway. I mean how big a brain do you need to sneak up on vegetables? I also enjoy the offal from the hares and birds we get.
I have discovered fish hearts and livers after watching Andrew Zimmern Bizarre Foods show.

 

[porcupine73]

Hm ... I think oxtail would not count as offal, because it's not an organ or gland ... but, I will say, I always buy as much as my farmer can provide, because it imho is a critical ingredient in making a tasty bone broth ...

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Too many Californicans up here now!
Seriously, we have good moose and caribou liver, heart, tongue and nose. I don't remember eating moose brains, they're so small anyway. I mean how big a brain do you need to sneak up on vegetables? I also enjoy the offal from the hares and birds we get.
I have discovered fish hearts and livers after watching Andrew Zimmern Bizarre Foods show.

It would take a lot of fish to make a meal of fish hearts; or one really BIG fish heart. Don't know if I'd enjoy fish livers or not, I keep thinking "cod liver oil" & that was sooooo nasty; the dog seemed to like it though. Out of curiosity, what type of fish are you eating the hearts from?
Regards, GF.

 

[dwarven_stout]

Out of curiosity, what type of fish are you eating the hearts from?

Blue whales.

 

[basilchef]

In your opinions, does oxtail count as offal?

unfortunately, no. but ox tail is not to be left "behind". i once made a take on shepards pie for a fall menu with oxtail. i braised it like short ribs, picked the meat and reduced the sauce. tossed in some corn and periguex. then in another pan i put truffled potato into a circlet and seared one side. filled the rest with the meat, then inverted the whole thing so potato was on top. garnished with fresh sliced potato chips cut into tear drop shapes. anyway now that im done being side tracked, a !@#$in little pate recipe is coming soon.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Blue whales.

Whales aren't fish, they're mammals.
Regards, GF.

 

[dinnerstick]

it's come up a couple times but can i just specifically say how tasty rabbit liver is please??? i love tortured goose and duck liver, how could i not, but rabbit liver is phenomenal

 

[Epimetheus]

basilchef, oh - my - word, that oxtail shepards pie sounds wonderful. Very rich.

It's great when I have to look up some of the words in a recipe. Perigueux sounds a lot more interesting than 'shrooms, wine, and beef broth. The shaped potato chips must have looked like flower petals.

 

[Subsailor]

It would take a lot of fish to make a meal of fish hearts; or one really BIG fish heart. Don't know if I'd enjoy fish livers or not, I keep thinking "cod liver oil" & that was sooooo nasty; the dog seemed to like it though. Out of curiosity, what type of fish are you eating the hearts from?
Regards, GF.

I tried salmon hearts and livers and I can honestly say I'm not sure I'll do it again. Even my native friends looked at me wierd but then they like fermented fish heads.
As for quantity, we do subsistance dip netting an for my household I am allowed 55 salmon.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Subsailor: do you use a fish wheel, or a true dipnet?
Regards, GF.

 

[porcupine73]

I use lamb necks when I make broth. I've found the spinal column 'meat' if you will isn't too bad. It tastes a little funny but I imagine it is a good thing to eat so down the hatch it goes.

And of course bone marrow, it's not really offal but, I never ate it and always thought it gross, then one day I just tried it to see, and wow it is really good. If it's cool it tastes like butter. If it's warm it has a buttery texture and is really good. I had once gotten some beef leg marrow bones and sucked the marrow out, I mean that's probably a good 1/2 or 3/4 cup of marrow in there, that was delicious.

 

[dinnerstick]

yeah beef marrow is delicious
also calf sweetbreads (thymus) breaded and very quickly deep fried
holy smokes