"organ meats" news and stories

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.

I'm not gonna pretend that this picture is pretty, or in the least bit appetizing, but I will note that the results are disturbingly delicious. The heart of the matter is that I went to a cookout a few weekends ago and was offered a grilled chicken heart by a friend who has yet to serve me anything that is less than madly tasty. Emboldened by this, I picked up a package of chicken hearts on a shopping jaunt this week, and started perusing my favorite recipe sites for marinades. It didn't take me long to find a 1956 James Beard recipe suggesting that these would make a dandy appetizer for a group of 25. Twenty-five of whom, I'm not entirely sure, 'cause even as staunchly carnivorous as my pals tend to be, few of 'em dig getting their offal on as much as I do, and I wouldn't subject them to it. There are exceptions, though.

Some friends came over this afternoon to serve as panel members for AOL Food's upcoming Hot Dog Taste Test. As I tended the grill between rounds, one of them began holding forth about how methods of barbecuing and grilling really were born of the necessity to bring greater flavor to cheap and previously discarded cuts of meat, and how folks were getting way too fancy-schmancy with the whole thing these days. I left my post at the flames, walked him to the fridge, pulled out the plastic container full of marinating hearts and started putting them on bamboo skewers.

He shut up and started eating.

James Beard's 1956 Grilled Chicken Hearts Recipe on Epicurious

(Note: In the above pic, I was out of sherry and subbed in brandy, which proved perfectly yummy.)

Lobel's of New York is a family business, owned and operated by brothers Leon and Stanley Lobel, and their sons Evan, Mark, and David, where everyone is a certifiable expert in meat. It is not surprising, therefore, that they all know how to cook everything from veal to chicken and how to match it with wine. After all, once you've eaten a lot of meat, it has to be washed down with something, right? Lobel's Meat and Wine: Great Recipes for Cooking and Pairing is not necessarily about pairing a dish with the one wine that will go with it, but about learning how to match foods - meats, specifically - with wines.

The first chapter of the book explains what types of wines are food-friendly and what it is about them that makes them work. It then goes on to introduce recipes and matches for beef, pork, veal, chicken, game, pork and organ meats. The only complaint that a wine-lover could have about this crash course is that it focuses quite heavily on French and Italian wines, with only a sprinkling of those from other regions. Of course, this criticism is easily smoothed by the fact that the knowledge contained in the book will better enable you to match wines from California or New Zealand, as well as from Burgundy.

If you want to brush up on your meat knowledge before you read the book, take a look at the Guide to Meat that is on the Lobels' website.

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