Rhonda Anderson > wrote:
> (Victor Sack) wrote:
>
> > They are sweetbreads, kidneys, tripe, chitterlings, lights/lungs, ears,
> > tails, trotters, cheek, tongue, brains, heart, giblets, fries/testicles
> > - all considered to be offal/awful. They have very little to do with
> > each other, culinarily.
>
> Mm, tails, trotters, cheek, ears - I probably wouldn't class those as
> offal in my own internal ramblings. While I don't know that I'd go out
> and buy any of those any time soon, I wouldn't necessarily pass up an
> opportunity to try them - though ears I'm more familiar with as a
> rawhide treat for dogs so not seeming so appetising :-). I have seen
> some recipes for cheek that looked very good.
Ears are not to everyone's taste, as they tend to be cartilagineous.
Testicles tend to be bland. Trotters, if served by themselves, rather
than used as a gelatinous ingredient, are a rather fussy dish and one
requiring long cooking. Cheek is very good for gelatinous stews akin to
oxtail ones.
You seem to have missed the best part of them all, offal or no offal:
tongue. Nothing is better in the whole wide world, meatwise. Nothing.
Then there are those delicate sweetbreads... And Tammy's kidneys in
mustard sauce... And menudo or sopa de mondongo... And
andouillettes... Ah!
Victor