That's "Offal," Not "Awful"

January 28, 2005 6:14 PM

Along with some foodie friends, we're having a "winter of offal." The idea is to expand our culinary horizons, and show respect for our food animals, by getting together every few weeks and learning to cook *excellent* food from organically raised trotters, entrails, and other bits commonly thought of as nasty. This week, I'm cooking beef tongue - so suggestions for that are particularly welcome. But any and all gourmet offal (not awful) recipes would be great.
posted by stonerose to food & drink (35 answers total)

Sorry I can't help with personal experience (veg), but I do know that this is THE book for awful -- er, offal recipes. The guy's a legend.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:22 PM on January 28, 2005

Fantastic, mudpuppie! I had bet dollars to donuts that you were linking to Bourdain's "Les Halles" book, which is indeed recommended on that Amazon page. But your link is even better.
posted by stonerose at 6:32 PM on January 28, 2005

You perhaps should extend this to your animals. I grew up on on a farm, our domesticated pets always loved cattle hearts. It was always an exciting time for me when my Grandmother would unwrap a heart in white butcher paper and make it up for the dogs.

But do, try to eat it all. We always grew up eating the animals that I had petted a year before. We appreciated all of them and chewed all of them up. This wasn't mean, but necessary. We'd have fried tongue, stewed up liver, etc. I was young, so I can't recall many recipes, but I do remember it distinctly forming what I am.
posted by sled at 6:35 PM on January 28, 2005

Well, I'm from an Asian family, and we eat beef tongue all the time. What you do is:

- Slice it into about 1" thick slices;
- Simmer it in soy sauce with a little sesame oil and ginger until tender;
- Add hard boiled eggs;
- Serve over white (jasmine) rice, sauce and all.

This is incredibl tasty--in fact it is one of my absolute favorite dishes in the whole world. You will totally love it. Tongue isn't gross--British people eat it on sandwiches. (Not that that helps my case necessarily, but still.)
posted by josh at 6:37 PM on January 28, 2005

Beef tongue: just slow cook it in good beef broth, with onions if you like, at about 200 degrees, for 8 to 10 hours.

Take the tongue out, peel it (which is now easy), and slice it.

Thicken the broth with flour, sour cream and paprika; pour it over the tongue slices and serve with egg noodles.

Leftovers, if there are any, make fine sandwiches the next day.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:38 PM on January 28, 2005

Beef heart we also always slow cooked in broth, then cut it into cubes and made soup -- beef heart, onion, carrot, potato, mushroom, and barley. I get worked up just thinking about it.

Beef tongue and heart are two of my very favorite things.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:40 PM on January 28, 2005

I love tongue but I've never had it in any fancy presentations. Usually as a sandwich, sometimes with other deli meats and the usuals deli sandwich accoutrements. I've enjoyed it with BBQ sauce.

So I can't offer any gourmet recipes from personal experience but I did find some on foodnetwork.com: Choucroute Garni and Lingua Agrodolce. There were a few others but these two seems to make tongue the centerpiece of the recipe. And they both sound delicious.
posted by stuart_s at 6:46 PM on January 28, 2005

Josh,

I should have expected it from someone who loves Austerlitz --one of the best novels I have read; and I read a scary number of novels -- your tongue recipe sounds amazing. About how long does it need to be simmered? Should I dilute the soy sauce?

FYI Rings of Saturn is also fantastic.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 7:04 PM on January 28, 2005

P.S. This is a great thread. I share most of my meals with Stonerose. We really appreciate the direction.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 7:07 PM on January 28, 2005

I have never had anything as delicious as sweetbreads (beef thymus) in all my life of extreme omnivorism.
posted by luriete at 7:10 PM on January 28, 2005

If you have the inclination, the classic tongue treatment in my family was to find a basin just big enough to curl the cooked tongue up in, and refrigerating it in its cooking liquid, with a plate on top and a weight on top of the plate. The liquid would jellify, and then the next day you could turn out the basin and voila! Pressed tongue.

I personally am partial to chicken livers in red wine, grilled lamb's kidneys, and steak and kidney pie. Washing and soaking the kidneys to get the piss out it crucial here...


A man walks into a butchers and asks for a pound of kiddlies.
"You mean kidneys, sir?"
"That's what I said, diddle I?"

posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:09 PM on January 28, 2005

PS: when my mum did this, it was always with corned (salted) tongue. I've never seen any other kind but maybe where you are they sell them fresh.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:12 PM on January 28, 2005

Beef tongue can be easily and deliciously prepared by boiling it with Schilling's whole mixed pickling spice. If you're tetchy about spice fragments, put it in a cheesecloth bag.

I can't remember how much to use, but it should be enough that the glorious fragrance from the bay leaves permeates the kitchen.

Where do you come from that tongue is lumped in with pig feet and lymph nodes? Where I'm from, it's a delicacy.

SoberingTruthFilter: Organ meats, including tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, tripe, and especially brains, are staggeringly high in cholesterol. They're best enjoyed in moderation.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:33 PM on January 28, 2005

Fried Tripe is great, boil the tripe for about an hour, then bread it and fry it.

We used to have kidney stew for dinner when I was a kid. Cut the kidneys in 3/4" pieces and be careful to remove every bit of fat. Soak in salt water, change if they still smell. Cook them up in a large skillet with onions, garlic and peppercorns. Thicken to make gravy and serve over rice.

My grandmother believed that heart made the best chili. Grind it if you have a meat grinder or pressure cook it till it falls apart.

Liver and. Fry up some bacon pieces, drain off the fat. Add liver slices and onions to smoking hot pan (if your pan is not non stick, dry the liver and oil it before putting it in the pan). Don't over cook! Cooked right, liver is great, overcook it and its like a bitter shoe sole.

You must try scrapple, I like the Rapa brand (but Greensboro and Hadaway are good too). You can also try your hand at making it. Boil up some pork bones and scraps with the liver. Season with salt, pepper and sage. Pull out the bones, mince up the meat and liver, then thicken with corn flour. Pour into loaf pans and let it set up in the refrigerator. Slice it in to 1/4" slices and fry a few slices in greased pan for breakfast.
posted by 445supermag at 9:33 PM on January 28, 2005

There's always tongue tacos! I ate a lot of 'em last time I was home.
posted by lychee at 9:39 PM on January 28, 2005 [1 favorite]

ikkyu2, I thought dietary cholesterol didn't actually make a lot of difference for most folks, yes? There's also the high vitamin and mineral content too.

Small portions once a week'd be all right, wouldn't they?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:27 PM on January 28, 2005

Also, it occurred to me that you should look at the famed Jerusalem Grill, which is basically lungs/heart/fowl giblets with North African seasonings, chopped fine and fried on a hot plate. Eat in pita with zhoug and pickles. Mmmm.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:29 PM on January 28, 2005

Cooked and pressed tongue is one of the finest sandwich meats available. Fortunately, I happen to own a tongue press. I defy anyone to find that in their local kitchenware store!
posted by tomble at 2:16 AM on January 29, 2005

I live in Hungary where we eat all kinds of guts - congealed blood sausages, boiled pig head, rooster testicle stew. But If you really want to impress in an offal competition, go to your local chinese butcher shop and pick up some chicken feet. They are a popular dim sum. Boil with soy and sugar, let cool, and maybe cut off the nails. Chewy, crunchy, and better for you than potato chips.

I have abowl of snack feets in my kitchen right now...
posted by zaelic at 3:42 AM on January 29, 2005

I lived with a family in Normandy when I was a sophomore in college as a part of a 'total immersion' language program. There, I was exposed to quite a number of different things, some of which were particularly nasty. The first time I ever had tripe, it was a sickening experience. First of all, it smelled like what it had been used for during the animals life. I almost literally had to choke it down so as not to offend the madame's cooking.

At any rate, a year or so goes by and I am in a restaurant in the Pantheon area of Paris (forgotten the name), and just for kicks, I may have been drunk at the time, I order a black pepper boudin, which is essentially tripe, but in a sausage casing. It was wonderful! I have not seen it anywhere else, but the black pepper and burgundy sauce made a fantastic combination... and not only did it erase the previous experience from my memory, but it's something I would have again and again if I could find it.
posted by psmealey at 6:11 AM on January 29, 2005

Second the tacos de lengua -- never made them myself, but I've had several excelllent renditions at mexican restaurants/road-side stands.

Make sure one of your meals includes rabbit liver.

I'm a relative novice when it comes to Chinese, but -- fried crispy intestines is definitely interesting.
posted by casu marzu at 8:33 AM on January 29, 2005

Joe's spleen: I thought dietary cholesterol didn't actually make a lot of difference for most folks, yes?

I think you might be confusing this with the salt/hypertension recommendation. About 25% of your body's cholesterol intake comes from the food you eat; 75% is recycled or synthesized. The Public Health Service guidelines for moderately elevated cholesterol suggest first trying diet and exercise to reduce it for 6 months, before medicating. Changing your diet can definitely reduce your fasting cholesterol levels a great deal.

Cholesterol should always be tested on a 12+ hour fast; for a lark in residency I drew some blood after eating a big old filet-mignon (thoughtfully provided by Pfizer™), and total chol. was over 500, whereas the guidelines say it ought to be <2 00 (fasting).br>
Small portions once a week'd be all right, wouldn't they?

I tend to think so, but that's folk wisdom from my grandfather, not rigorous science. The way I explain it is that if there's something that makes you happy, it's probably good for you at least to that extent.

Sorry to derail.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:52 AM on January 29, 2005

More about Boudin at the Boudin link on Looka
posted by growabrain at 8:55 AM on January 29, 2005

Beef tongue (due to its cheap price) was a staple meat during my childhood, and I just learned to love liver before I learned how high my cholesterol levels were. I never could get into that brains-scrambled-with-eggs thing.

Anyway, my favorite condiment for beef tongue was coarse mustard, with onion if making a sandwich. With today's variety of mustards, pick up three or four.
posted by mischief at 9:01 AM on January 29, 2005

Tongue and heart aren't especially high in cholesterol (or fat for that matter). They're both essentially pure muscle tissue and therefore no more (or perhaps less) likely than "regular meat" to be fat and cholesterol laden. Liver and brains, however, are extremely high in both.
posted by TimeFactor at 9:12 AM on January 29, 2005

And sorry to continue derailing.
posted by TimeFactor at 9:12 AM on January 29, 2005

gesamtkunstwerk,

Usually it takes about 75 minutes minimum, but the longer the better! The main thing is that it depends on whether or not it's 'peeled' beforehand. If it's not, then you have to cook it for a lot longer; if it is, then it doesn't take very long at all.

Man, I'm going to have to make some of this for myself, like, tomorrow.... this is a great thread! I think we should keep filling it up with recipes so that we can all bookmark it and use it as reference!
posted by josh at 10:24 AM on January 29, 2005

So, how does one peel a tongue before hand? We always slow cook it, then peel it (saving the cooking liquid and outer bits for my dog, of course).
posted by QIbHom at 2:10 PM on January 29, 2005

I would like to voice a note of unqualified dissent to the entire premise of the question.
posted by joeclark at 4:14 PM on January 29, 2005

I would like to voice a note of unqualified approval to the entire premise of the question.

Also, my lunch today reminded me of another favorite vehicle for the delivery of offal: pho.
posted by casu marzu at 4:58 PM on January 29, 2005

Tongue and heart aren't especially high in cholesterol (or fat for that matter). They're both essentially pure muscle tissue and therefore no more (or perhaps less) likely than "regular meat" to be fat and cholesterol laden.

Would that it were so, timefactor. They are indeed low in fat, but not in cholesterol. If they were, I'd have tongue on rye for lunch every day.

More here, as I am embarrassed about derailing.

posted by ikkyu2 at 11:09 PM on January 29, 2005

Don't be embarrassed about derailing. The cholesterol content is interesting.

We picked up the tongue yesterday. We were both a little shocked at the sight, but that's what the winter of offal is about.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 7:11 AM on January 30, 2005

I would like to voice a note of unqualified dissent to the entire premise of the question.

Dude, your book-cover is goatse.cx, and you're squeamed out by offal? ;-)
posted by stonerose at 8:27 AM on January 30, 2005

Well, that should teach me not to make definitive statements without facts to back them up. I did know about high cholesterol in brains and livers (and why) but the relationship between muscle flexibility and cholesterol content is new to me and fascinating. That still leaves high cholesterol in kidneys and thymus (sweetbreads) unexplained. I can't even think of anything to make up to explain it ;)

And to compensate for derailing, I'll re-rail to say that I've had very thinly sliced beef heart at Korean barbecue and it was wonderful. It's very "meaty" tasting and the thin slicing prevents toughness. One of the main reasons I don't like most offal is because of the mealy texture as much as anything;
I like liverwurst but not liver. And tongue and heart (and tripe) aren't mealy and I love them.
posted by TimeFactor at 8:42 AM on January 30, 2005

One of my absolute favorite things to eat is pho with good lean tripe, well-presoaked to undo some of the toughness. There's just nothing like it.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:17 AM on January 30, 2005