Time for Offal

by Kat Kinsman, Posted Dec 15th 2008 @ 10:00AM

Time Magazine reports, with a soupçon of punny glee, that sales of offal in Great Britain have surged as of late, likely in response to the international economic downturn. Quoth London's Liz Logan:

"Tough economic times have Britons eating their hearts out and swallowing their tongues. Not literally, of course. But offal - or "variety meats," as the food category is euphemistically called in the U.K. - is experiencing a surge in popularity, with sales up 67% over the past five years."

Thing is, even in advance of the pound sterling's plunge, the nose-to-tail herd, helmed by offal stalwarts like Fergus Henderson and River Cottage's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, had been squealing 'bout the culinary benefits of tripe, kidneys, brains, tail, giblets and trotters. Come for the savings, stay for the savoring -- the message seems to have come home to roost.

I posted a while back about my love of grilled chicken hearts, and I'm no stranger to whisking up a batch of giblet gravy, or a neckbone ragout, but I'm hungry for your favorite takes on organ meats. Post 'em in the comments below.

[via: Time]

Thank you to Flickr user vvvanessa for uploading this drool-inducing image to the Slashfood pool.

Giblet gravy recipe after the jump.

Giblet Gravy (adapted from Charleston Receipts)

Giblets and neck from turkey, cooked
4 cups chicken, turkey or vegetable stock
2 cubes chicken bouillon
2 tsp poultry seasoning (a commercial blend like Bell's, or a mixture of sage, thyme, savory, marjoram and celery salt, proportions to taste)
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup cold water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 hard boiled egg, sliced

Chop the giblets and the neck meat. Using a sauce pot, bring the stock to a boil. Add the giblets, bouillon cubes and poultry seasoning to the mixture.

In a separate bowl, mix the cornstarch and water, and add to the boiling stock, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste, and add the sliced boiled egg.

Filed Under: Budget Cuisine, Magazines, Trends, Head to Tail, Ingredients, Offal
Tags: brain, british food, british isles, BritishFood, chitterlings, europe, Fergus Henderson, FergusHenderson, head to tail, HeadToTail, heart, kat kinsman, KatKin, KatKinsman, kidney, liver, meat, nose to tail, NoseToTail, offal, organ meats, OrganMeats, time magazine, TimeMagazine, tongue, trotter

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-15-2008 @11:25AM Luis Antonio said... Beef toungue + mole
Beef tail braised with tomato sauce
and welll mexican food has a lot of options, pickled liver, pickled pork skin an trotters, toungue, tripe, brain-tacos... oh yeah and of course pozole has trotters and well menudo is the cow's stomach.

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12-15-2008 @12:41PM christopher said... What Luis said. Even in fat economic times we should be eating the whole animal anyway, its so wasteful and we throw out some of the best parts. I suppose they are used in feed and hot dogs but still...

I really hope offal's time has come in the US. I enjoy offal more than bone meat. These are a few of my favorite things:
* Tongue poached in bay leaf, cinnamon, black pepper corns, and garlic...
* minutes old liver and roasted on a open fire has a sublet sweetness that makes day old liver pale in comparison,
* fire roasted kidneys,
* most of the digestive system (inner and outer layers of the stomach, intestines, esophagus),
* poached brains
* pan fried assorted offal
* testicles - get over it, try them.
* authentic mexican: menudo, buche and lengua tacos
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12-15-2008 @1:18PM Kat Kinsman said... Mmmmm! Y'all are making me hungry. I love lengua tacos, and am lucky enough to live near an amazing Mexican place that makes them. I think I'm going to spend next weekend experimenting with cooking tongue. If you have any preparation tips, I'd be glad of them.

Where can one get fresh liver? It is an on-the-farm thing, or are there butchers who specialize?

As for brains - I was almost put off them for a while when I had them served cold and grey in slabs on a bare plate at a Lebanese place a few years back, but since then, some crispy fried calves brains at Applewood in Park Slope, Brooklyn made me a convert.

I've only had tail at one BBQ place in Brooklyn - Fette Sau. Are there any home preparations you can recommend? It was a lot of work to eat for such little meat, but that was damned succulent meat.
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12-15-2008 @1:26PM Barry said... I'm torn. On the one hand, we should use the entire animal but on the other I can't stand the idea of eating any organ meat. Just can't do it.
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12-15-2008 @9:54PM am said... ugh....offal is awful.....how do you get around the metallic taste? except for really good fois gras (and clams and mussels etc which are just big urinary tracts) i cant stomach any organs...esp the ones that filter the poisons out of your body....just ewwwwwww.

and if you people would stop eating the offal it would be a lot cheaper and i could afford to feed it to my dog....he loves it.

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