Do you eat awful? Wait, offal...

I only like foul liver

I hope you meant "fowl liver".

-Paul W.

BAHAHAHA....YES Paul...I meant FOWL liver...although those who don't like liver might feel the the first spelling is more appropriate.

the first spelling is more appropriate.

And goodness knows, we are all about appropriate!

My wife says that her family couldn't wait to butcher so that they could get tongue sandwiches. I told her I didn't want to taste something that was tasting me back at the same time. I love chicken livers, liver and onions and would try sweetbreads and kidneys.

I love sausage and I have no idea what's in that (and may not want to know). So, I guess I'm willing to give most anything a try (except tongue).

Jim

Jim,
Am I mis-remembering, or were you here way back? Maybe it was your twin brother. I guess that I have eaten so many parts that I don't know where I might draw the line. So long that is, that it was properly cooked. Tongue is very good prepared properly. Brains I have eaten, but only scrambled with eggs. Liver, heart, kidneys, head cheese, pigs feet. Chicken feet (once was enough), I just figured it out as to where I would be likely to draw the line....EYES

the first spelling is more appropriate.

And goodness knows, we are all about appropriate!

We aren't?! LOL!

btw, Welcome Jim!

I'll try anything once (and don't have a lot of respect for people that condemn foods without ever tasting them) but I do have definite preferences.

I don't enjoy strongly flavoured organ meats, which includes some liver, kidneys etc. Anyone that says they don't like sweetbreads either hasn't tried them or is losing the battle of mind over palate ("Ooh that's innards, it must be icky!"), as that particular innard is very neutral in both taste and texture and takes on the flavour of the accompanying sauce wonderfully.

Here is a link to one you may get a kick out of: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/icky.html

I think over the course of my lifetime, tongue, blood sausage, I've tried it all. Prairie oysters, brain, kidney, liver. And now I've given it up. Sweetbreads included. Fois Gras excluded. Haven't given that up yet. I tried sweetbreads again recently and they just didn't do it for me. I *think* I would still eat blood pudding. I think.
But my answer...would have to be no.

I recently lied to my daughter and told her sweetbreads "were a kind of a sausage." mmmmhmmm. http://www.babettefeasts.com/2008/01/catching-up.html

Bill, there are few things that I won't try once, and indeed I have tried liver (hate it, any kind), had fried pork rinds (what country kid hasn't), was totally turned off of anything above the neck by my Grandma's boiling hog's heads on the kitchen stove to make headcheese, and having helped butcher all manner of livestock and wild game, there is absolutely NOTHING in the abdominal cavity (possible exception being heart) that looks remotely edible to me. I might someday be likkered up enough to douse some calf fries with hot sauce and try them, and I do like alligator tail, froglegs, and would try snake if the opportunity came up. But, there is enough of the ick-factor at work with offal and brains, that there is just no good reason to put myself the ordeal of taking that first bite, when there are so many perfectly delectable foodstuffs out there to eat.

If I ate sweetbreads, sure I might actually like it, BUT, if I didn't, then there would be a wasted meal at which I could have dined on a bison ribeye, or a grilled venison tenderloin, either of which I would enjoy far better just by anticipating it, not dreading it. Btw, I've even had roasted 'possum & sweet taters. Have YOU?

Btw, I've even had roasted 'possum & sweet taters. Have YOU?

Nope. But I'm up for it - we just don't get a lot of opossum around these parts.....

Anyway, I've often wondered what this aversion to fat means.

Please allow me to assist.
It means you're a fussy, pain in the ass.

Speaking of fat, on “the Hill” in St. Louis, I sampled salted and cured pork fat. It had an Italian name, but it was basically pork fat, no lean at all. It was sliced thin and you were supposed to let it melt in your mouth to release the creamy taste and texture. I might as well have eaten a spoonful of lard with salt. It was way too much fat at one time.

I like my lard in biscuits.

Jim

[Robin Garr]

Speaking of fat, on “the Hill” in St. Louis, I sampled salted and cured pork fat. It had an Italian name, but it was basically pork fat, no lean at all. It was sliced thin and you were supposed to let it melt in your mouth to release the creamy taste and texture. I might as well have eaten a spoonful of lard with salt. It was way too much fat at one time.

I like my lard in biscuits.

Jim, I don't know about St. Louis Italian-American, but in Northern Italy, that confection is called ... lardo! It's actually quite succulent, once you get past the idea of it.

WOW! You would think I could have rememberered the name lardo. Once again, I need to keep an open mind and try things a second time. After all, it's what I preach to my kids.

Jim

Prarie oysters?

Makes me cringe.

You males know what I mean.

Interesting offal evening with Chris Cosesntino described here, and here. Just thought I'd share.


from the Ruhlman blog...

I was genuinely not looking forward to eating the liver crudo, and so it was a revelation to discover that it was at first, not unpleasant at all, and then increasingly interesting and pleasant to eat, with the crunchy raw sugar beets and excellent acidic juniper balsamic. It took three pieces to get to get to that enjoyment place. Yes the texture was a little spongy (like under-sauteed foie gras) but I found the forbiddeness of texture exciting.

Not sure I could have managed that one.

I saw a guy buy a piece of liver, unwrap it and eat it raw right there in front of me once. It didn't appeal to me but it didn't make me ill, either.

OK, that one is really going too far.

I have cooked and eaten venison heart and it made me sick, but not for lack of willingness on my part.

To me one of the best tasting pieces of meat in the whole world is venison heart.

When I was growing up we raised cattle so when we had the round up we ate mountain oysters. They were roasted right there in the fire we were heating the branding iron in. We were poor so we didn't eat the beef we were raising we ate venison. I have had lots of heart and liver. I remember having brains once and there was nothing wrong with them. Then there is the time I went to China. I didn't ask what it was that I was eating but it sure was good.

Sweetbreads are the best. The others are OK.

My favorite roast chicken place, when I was in college, was Sal's Birdland. They sold a lot of chicken and ribs. They also had gizzards on the menu. I once asked how many gizzards they sold in a week... 200 lbs.

That's a lot of gizzards.