offal - cheap and definitely old style

System

Offal?



No thanks

zaxdog

I can't stand the idea of eating offal, my papa was a butcher and was convinced it was only fit for the dogs.

Although oddly I LOVE haggis, just have to switch my brain off to eat it :eek:

Popperwell

At some point I probably have eaten some kind of offal but not known that I have but if doing my own meals I have not included it. In the past I have eaten liver and kidney and TBH it was ok...but today I would not consider it.

That is not strictly true, I did break my ban and had liver and bacon a couple of months ago but still wasn't that keen. I guess I was thinking about how common it was years ago as was steak and kidney pie.

I keep hearing about black pudding but again I have never ever had that. And I have never eaten haggis...

lostinrates

I like sweetbreads . Adore liver (espacially chicken and calves), and cpwhile I don't like heart, I can eat it. Feel the same about kidneys.

Lungs I tried once and found them really unpleasant.

System

I have forced myself to eat it in the past when ive been anaemic but havent enjoyed it. In fact its probably because i have forced myself to eat it that i wont touch it now.

andygb

I watched Matt Tebbut as he struggled to eat various "delicious" pieces of offal, and it was making me ill just looking at him.
I don't mind liver and kidney, and have eaten a lot of different pates and terrinnes both here and in France, but the first thing which I found inedible were Andoulettes, a sausage made from bits of stomach and the like. It was like eating a container of bits of rubber, and it tasted offal.

babyshoes

It was only recently that I discovered oxtail is considered offal - it was a rare treat in our house growing up! It is still on our menu, though wish it was cheaper as I would eat it weekly if I could... I always snap up any with yellow stickers on it when I find it.

Have never liked the aftertaste of kidneys - we used to have steak and kidney pie for Saturday lunches sometimes as a child, I would pick out the kidney and give it to Dad. I think Mom soon started buying or making individual pies, rather than one big one after that, so Dad could have the 'snake and pygmy' and we could have either plain steak or chicken...

Liver is ok, I sometimes get a craving for it which is often a warning sign that I'm starting to go slightly anaemic! I started enjoying it as a child when my friend's Mom used to make a mild, creamy chicken liver pate for parties. I wonder if she still has the recipe?

We used to get 'tongue' (probably beef, not sure though!) sliced like ham from the deli counter as a child - our usual Saturday lunch in summer was cold meats and salads with a fresh loaf of bread. Ham was the expensive meat, so that was rationed to one slice each if we had it at all, but the cheaper cuts like 'polony' and tongue were more in abundance. I really used to enjoy it, but haven't seen it in a supermarket recently. I think my OH would gag if I bought it now though!

Since moving to the UK 10ish years ago I have tried black pudding a few times. Sometimes it is verging on nice, other times I find it a bit bland and fatty tasting. On the whole, I tend not to bother eating it unless it comes with a cooked breakfast that I've paid for! I did try haggis when we visited friends in Scotland, but wasn't impressed...

Don't think I've tried any other offal, though I have no objection to it in principal - I would only *not* eat it on taste grounds! My OH is a bit fussier though, which is why I haven't been more adventurous with buying and cooking it. I did buy and cook liver while she was working away, which made a nice change! A colleague was recently raving about stuffed heart being tasty and cheap; after watching the show I am tempted to get the recipe off him, though again I think the OH might object...

I do wish we had a *decent* butcher in our town. The butcher we do have makes tasty sausages, but only does the fairly mainstream stuff plus a few specialist things like kangaroo / ostrich meat & international sausages, and are not interested in sourcing / selling the cheaper cuts like cheek or offcuts for pet food - plus their prices for ordinary meat are not any cheaper than the supermarket. I tend to only go in for a few certain things like boerewors which is a taste of home! I think they don't butcher anything on site, but bring it in. There is a butcher with a good reputation the next town over, but the petrol is a consideration so I have only been once - for last year's Christmas turkey!

Fruball

There is a good reason why offal sounds like 'awful'.

I will eat pate (liver) but absolutely nothing else - no way - not ever - cannot be more emphatic!

It makes me ill thinking about it _pale_

sonastin

I've never quite understood why some parts of an animal make folks squeamish but others don't - on the face of it, backside is pretty unappetising but folks tend to find rump steak quite appealing!

For me, the objection to kidney and liver has always been to the texture. Black pudding is delicious but if its too dry its unpleasant to eat. Haggis is one of my favourites but I struggle to find it down here. Tripe just looks like the texture is going to be wrong. Oxtail soup was one of my favourites as a kid but haven't been near a) the real thing ever or b) the soup since I grew up! I'm willing to try most things (except tripe!) but the taste and texture has to be right or it'll make me feel ill. Where it comes from on the animal doesn't bother me at all.

andygb

Here are some of my favourite offal dishes:

Ox cheeks - make a really great casserole or bouef bourgignon.
Ox tongue - great sliced thin in salads, or you can get tins in France, which come ready to eat with a lovely pepper sauce.
Ox tail - great for soups and stews.

Pig's head meat - the meat (not the whole head with snout and eyes "gurning" at you from the middle of the table:eek:). This can form the basis for a couple of really good terrine type dishes - Jambon Persille and Tete de Porc, basically pieces of meat from the head, which has been chopped up and made into a slab held together with a parsley gelatine - excellent with a little rocket and cornichons.
Most pates using bits of pig meat and kidneys/liver. I find the coarse French and Belgian pates the tastiest, because they use a lot more garlic and other things like whole peppercorns - Mrs Andy hates them, so that means I get them all to myself:D

The important thing to remember about offal, as Matt Tebbutt said last night, is that it has a shelf life of 3 days, so you have to be confident of the butcher, and I would not recommend cooking liver and kidneys "pink" as some of the "celebrity chefs" do, because "off offal" will do bad things to you.