There’s lots of ways to cook brains, but Moroccan brains with tomato and harissa are definitely one of the most famous. If you like dishes of spicy tomato-y business like shakshuka or eggs in purgatory, you’ll love it. Seriously. I’ve been doing lots of research on craniaphagy (if that’s a word) and reaching out to…
Offal and Organ Meats
As a professional chef I was trained in the arts of organ cookery, and it's a great passion of mine. Here you'll find recipes and techniques for real cooking, lost culinary arts most of society will never know or appreciate. Exciting experiments cooking with everything from blood, unlaid eggs, brains, trotters, testicles, and animal heads await you here, when and if you're ready.
Creole Blood Sausage Cake
Blood Sausage Cake is one of the more appetizing names I’ve typed into this website. All jokes aside, I can guarantee you that if you have access to fresh animal blood, and enjoy offal, it’s definitely for you. It tastes great, too, and if you have ancestors from Scandinavia, like I do, they’ll applaud you…
Smoked Oxtails with Dried Mushrooms and Tomato
Oxtails charred over a wood fire and braised with dried boletes, stock and tomato is a great way to enjoy one of the finest cuts the cow has to offer. Literally the richest, most dense, collagen-packed meat on the animal, oxtails are a special treat, and I make sure to scoop up a few packs…
The Case for Roadkill
What I’d invite you to consider today, at least hypothetically, even from a distance, is roadkill, and why it isn’t as taboo or foul as it’s made out to be. Contrary to the jokes and stigma culture would have us believe, eating roadkill is completely safe with a basic knowledge of food safety, and…
Brain Fritters with Gruyere, Lemon and Sage
If you’ve never eaten brains, but are curious about them, these fritters should be the first thing on your list to make. If you’re a seasoned eater of elusive cranial sweets, you can probably say hello to your new favorite brain recipe. The key with brains, at least for me, in trying to serve them…
Brain Salad with Herbs and Pickled Peppers (Salade de Cervelle)
Nothing conjurs up the appetite like a canape of cold, chilled brains, am I right? In all seriousness, I’m serious about normalizing offal, and, as brains are some of the most obscure, wiggly, and to most, ghoulish of organ meats, I’m trying to build a section of this site that can show how to cook…
Smoked Venison Kidneys
Smoked venison kidneys are not only one of the best ways I’ve had kidneys (steak and kidney pie is my other standby) but it’s one of the best recipes for offal and organ meats in my repertoire, period. If you’ve had kidneys are didn’t care for them in the past, or if you’re new to…
Smoked Venison Shank and Trotter Terrine
I love a good chunk of charcuterie, and this year’s wealth of venison has been crying out to be made into a sliceable terrine en gelee./aspic. The venison trotters I mention in this post are chock-ful of collagen, making them the perfect thing to help bind a chilled headcheese-style terrine. You could definitely make a…
Venison Trotters
Today, for your viewing pleasure, I present one of the most enjoyable culinary rabbit holes I’ve been down in a very long time. Behold the lowly deer foot, also called venison trotters or Bambi tootsies. Yes, you can eat the feet of deer, including what’s inside the hoof, and, although it might sound bizarre to…
Steamed Fish with Trotter-Mushroom Sauce
Flecked with mushroom duxelles, lemon and herbs, trotter mushroom sauce is one of the richest sauces for fish I know of. When I have trotters, the first thing I usually make are crispy-fried cakes, but this earthy, mushroomy, herby sauce lifted with lemon is a great recipe for using up leftover minced trotter (you’ll have…
Venison Trotter Cakes (Cromesquis)
What’s golden brown, crispy-fried, ooey-goey and delicious? Venison trotter cakes. Almost like a meat-filled tater tot, trotter cakes or cromesquis as they might be called are a little chef secret I’ve adapted to venison here. Most of the time you’re going to see them made with pork, which is how I was taught to make…
Venison Fat Shmaltz
Wondering what to do with venison fat? Oh do I have a treat for you! There’s a huge misconception about venison/deer fat and it’s use in cooking. Basically, people think it tastes like chapstick, it’s gamey and horrible, too rich, or some other common unfortunate misunderstanding. If you’re here, you’re probably bambi fat-curious, so know…
Sicilian Venison Heart Sandwiches (Vastedda Palermitana)
Italian street food is truly some of the coolest out there, case in point: la Vastedda Palermitana. Also known as pani ca muesa or pane con la milza, this sandwich has a few names, all of which are probably more attractive than a descriptive English one. Why? Well, to be blunt, the Vastedda is a…