offal - do you eat it?


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a few years ago, talking to a mate who is a terrific chef, tony from tartufo (brother is amando from buon ricardo for sydneysiders). on the subject of tripe.

in typical modest chef fashion, he declared he made the best in australia. things grew and the last few years, a bunch of us have an annual offal lunch at his restaurant. we leave the menu to him and we bring some top wines that we think might go with offal, or that we simply want to drink (the tragedy this year was that two guys pulled out for family reasons the day before - their wines were the 79 krug and a magnum of 89 yquem). we did have an 02 krug, 05 bonneau du martray corton charlemagne, 97 tig, 13 sass, 03 henri bonneau, 00 and 05 pichon baron and plenty more.

the offal included carpaccio of ox tongue, oxtail mousse with bone marrow and blood pudding, lambs brains, slow roasted beef cheeks, sweetbreads, lambs kidneys on a skewer with drunken figs and chicken thighs, calves liver, chicken liver muesli, tony's fantastic tripe and more. am very hungry just writing this. and if anyone does tripe better than tony, i'm keen to try it. 

i am guessing we have a mix of fans of the stuff and others with no taste at all who won't touch it. 

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a few years ago, talking to a mate who is a terrific chef, tony from tartufo (brother is amando from buon ricardo for sydneysiders). on the subject of tripe. in typical modest chef fashion, he de

Another vote for haggis - all those parts of a sheep you don't want to look at in one tasty package. On Burns' night each year I get my Cub Scouts to try it (along with me channelling my Scottish half

I will eat whatever tastes good. Have had various grilled chicken parts in Japan, monkfish liver (ankimo) is a favorite food, however I have had some truly disgusting offal.  There is a latin tri

Of course! We regularly eat ox liver, a traditional dish here (fried - rosé/medium, not dead leathery dry!) with fried onion and apple slices) and ox tongue (boiled, love it). Less often chicken hearts, goose liver (tasty). Never brain, no kidney, no sweetbread. Had a great kidney-stew once in England and liked it a lot, but good lamb kidney is hard to get hold of in our neck of the woods.

Out of interest, how was the '97 Tignanello, Ken?

 

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2 minutes ago, Fugu said:

Of course! We regularly eat ox liver, a traditional dish here (fried - rosé/medium, not dead leathery dry!) with fried onion and apple slices) and ox tongue (cooked, love it). Less often chicken hearts, goose liver (tasty). Never brain, no kidney, no sweetbread. Had a great kidney-stew once in England and liked it a lot, but good lamb kidney is hard to get hold of in our neck of the woods.

Out of interest, how was the '97 Tignanello, Ken?

 

in fantastic shape.

saw most of the supertuscans from 97 last year and very underwhelmed but this one stood up. 

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2 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

in fantastic shape.

saw most of the supertuscans from 97 last year and very underwhelmed but this one stood up. 

Thanks, good to know! Got a tiny few in the cellar. Perhaps time to pop another....

 

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The '90 should be great (never had one). I still got a few 93, not the most spectacular vintage but acquired at a good price. Can't actually remember when we had the last one, years back, but I think it was quite good, better than expected.

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2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

on the subject of tripe.

I remember years ago, my then girlfriend Tomoko was leading a ceramics conservation tour around Japan. Me, Tomoko, the uk ceramic group, and the UK course leader were in Yakiniku indoor BBQ place, getting smashed on Yebisu black and stuffing our faces with grilled horse meat, shrimp etc.

Anyway the intestine course arrived, and I dutifully looked after mine and my missus' bits of marinated tubular intestine, cooking them evenly and rendering all the globular fat from inside the centre. All this time the head tutor is just getting smashed and letting the intestine near him, slowly incinerate one side and raw on the other.  All of a sudden I'm taking a picture, and Tomoko says "itadakimasu" (Lets Eat!). the tutor steals my nicely rendered bits, and in putting down the camera, i'm faced with eating this blubbery cold charcoal mess. For some unknown reason, (when saturated in Japanese culture), the idea of creating a faux pas, by not complying when told to do something is very strong ( a bit like a jedi mind trick). 

I place the large fatty morsel in my mouth, It required a 1000 chews, all the time my mouth is full of carbon and clumps of thick cold intestinal fat sliding down my throat. JESUS, i've never felt so close to throwing up of on both 7 people and a pair of roaring table mounted bbq's.  Thankfully I wiped the gagging reflux tears from my eyes, downed my Yebisu, and spent the rest of the meal conducting chopstick kendo with the tutor, so he had to eat his own cooking. 

But yes love offal, raw Monkfish liver is a challenge though! think cold intensely fishy custard.

intestine.jpg

Screen Shot 2018-04-07 at 11.12.05.jpg

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Only in haggis, and sausages. Not a huge fan of tripe. But a big fan of Pichon-Baron, @Ken Gargett. I’ve got a few bottles each of both the 00 and the 05. And a few other years as well. I love the 00, but haven’t broached the 05 yet, although I’ve had several bottles of the 05 Tourelles de Longueville, and thoroughly enjoyed them. Very excited to dive into the 05 when I get home.

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Another vote for haggis - all those parts of a sheep you don't want to look at in one tasty package. On Burns' night each year I get my Cub Scouts to try it (along with me channelling my Scottish half for the Address) and they love it. I then get messages from parents asking where they can get it because little Adeyola or whoever has a new favourite food.

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I will eat whatever tastes good. Have had various grilled chicken parts in Japan, monkfish liver (ankimo) is a favorite food, however I have had some truly disgusting offal. 

There is a latin tripe soup called mondongo. I have only gotten near it once, at a restaurant in Miami called Mondongos (I’d have to imagine theirs is a decent representation of the dish). It quite literally smells like sh*t. I have no idea how on earth people eat it, much less enjoy it. 

Though I have had tripe that was edible, not crazy about the consistency.

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22 minutes ago, El Hoze said:

It quite literally smells like sh*t. I have no idea how on earth people eat it, much less enjoy it. 

The dish that creeps me out the most is the West Indian "Mannish Water" with a goat skull in the soup. Definitely "Man.......ish"

mannish water.jpg

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In South East Asia, you'd be missing out on quite a bit if you don't eat offal.  Livers braised in a claypot; beef tripe with noodles; blood cakes (pig's blood coagulated and served like a block of very unvegan tofu); chicken gizzards; a soup containing pig's intestines, liver, kidney, pancreas and lord knows what else.  Love it all.

Loved trippa alla romana in Rome.  Loved fritto misto in Piedmont.  Used to go to St John's for grilled ox hearts every time I was in London.  Throw a good head cheese my way and I'm a happy camper. 

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Oh yes, very happy to have it  all having grown up in a farm and hleped slaughter pigs and bring the blood to the kitchen for boiled blood with onions - we would use any and every part of the pigs and the mules. Great home-cured hams and salamis and chorizos.

Brains, livers, kidneys as well. Happy to have a few places around my village here in Germany where they do "home-slaughter" days and you can have all parts of the pig. Also, horsemeat is quite popular around here, French influenced area.

A very populat dish here in this area is "Saumagen", a filled sow's stomach, really yummy. Haggis would be a good comparison to Saumagen.

Saumagen is a German dish popular in the Palatinate. The name means "sow's stomach". The dish is similar to a sausage in that it consists of a stuffed casing; however, the stomach itself is integral to the dish. It isn't as thin as a typical sausage casing (intestines or artificial casing). Rather it is meat-like, being a strong muscular organ, and when the dish is finished by being pan-fried or roasted in the oven, it becomes crisp. The dish is somewhat similar to the Scottish haggis, although the stuffing is quite different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saumagen

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Not into internal organ meats, I just don't like them and have them prepared every which way.  I can deal with the head, hoofs, tails, ears...  Anything on the outside of the animal.

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I’m always up for trying anything with the hope of being pleasantly surprised so offal is fine with me and it can be excellent.

Sheeps head is considered a delicacy in Mongolia. Can’t say I was a big fan though. 

F5DAD438-BF8C-4196-BB94-2D47A0E6A70A.jpeg

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48 minutes ago, nino said:

Oh yes, very happy to have it  all having grown up in a farm and hleped slaughter pigs and bring the blood to the kitchen for boiled blood with onions - we would use any and every part of the pigs and the mules. Great home-cured hams and salamis and chorizos.

Brains, livers, kidneys as well. Happy to have a few places around my village here in Germany where they do "home-slaughter" days and you can have all parts of the pig. Also, horsemeat is quite popular around here, French influenced area.

A very populat dish here in this area is "Saumagen", a filled sow's stomach, really yummy. Haggis would be a good comparison to Saumagen.

Saumagen is a German dish popular in the Palatinate. The name means "sow's stomach". The dish is similar to a sausage in that it consists of a stuffed casing; however, the stomach itself is integral to the dish. It isn't as thin as a typical sausage casing (intestines or artificial casing). Rather it is meat-like, being a strong muscular organ, and when the dish is finished by being pan-fried or roasted in the oven, it becomes crisp. The dish is somewhat similar to the Scottish haggis, although the stuffing is quite different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saumagen

Sounds like I need to try that one Nino! Don’t suppose you can get it in the east? I’m currently in Leipzig.

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1 hour ago, 99call said:

The dish that creeps me out the most is the West Indian "Mannish Water" with a goat skull in the soup. Definitely "Man.......ish"

mannish water.jpg

That would definitely qualify as intimidating! The name as well sounds pretty darn unappetizing! However, I’d probably try it if it didn’t smell as horrid as it looks. I have had head cheese, basically a terrine made out of a boiled pigs head, that was really really good. 

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Just now, El Hoze said:

basically a terrine made out of a boiled pigs head, that was really really good. 

head meat, cheeks etc, is defo tasty, in a terrine etc. but theres never a need to serve up a skull, Unless your filming Indiana Jones!

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Almost anything is good as long as it’s cooked properly! Lol. 

We have a LOT of pho restaurants around here. I tend to judge them by their tripe. If you take the time to get your tripe right, it tells me you’re probably doing everything else pretty thoroughly as well. If the tripe is hard to chew... I assume a lot of details are overlooked in the kitchen. 

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1 hour ago, 99call said:

head meat, cheeks etc, is defo tasty, in a terrine etc. but theres never a need to serve up a skull, Unless your filming Indiana Jones!

Braising jowls next week from this season's pig we bought.

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4 hours ago, ayepatz said:

Sounds like I need to try that one Nino! Don’t suppose you can get it in the east? I’m currently in Leipzig.

Nope, you will only get that in the West and then only in the Pfalz area around Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Mainz .... :-)

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12 minutes ago, nino said:

Nope, you will only get that in the West and then only in the Pfalz area around Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Mainz .... :-)

Looks like it’s Weißwurst, Brezen, and Bier again then. ?

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Looks like it’s Weißwurst, Brezen, and Bier again then.
Or you could just nibble on a couple of those cigars you posted just now, they look pretty edible!
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