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    Offal

     

    ingredients for veal liver and sweet chanterelle sauce

    Offal, otherwise known as organ meats. People have really mixed feelings about these. You might know someone who eats liver, or perhaps the occasional chicken gizzard. When I was younger I always liked food, but organ meats were strange, and gross. I became exposed to cooking with them through working in restaurants while I was going to business school. Slowly but surely, I began to have a paradigm shift. I began to understand why people eat these things.

    I began to understand that eating organ meats was historically a necessity, and sometimes even a luxury. In older times, animals were seasonally harvested, every single part of it was used, and nothing was wasted.  Contrastingly, Foie gras is one of the most expensive products I have ever cooked with, it is typically the fattened liver of ducks or geese, although the ancient Romans crafted foie from many animals, such as pigs.

    In all seriousness though, I don't sit at home and eat brains all the time, I reserve most offal for special occasions, and for people that I know will appreciate them. Nowadays people have a great fear of organs in mainstream cuisine, although it seems to be getting better slowly. One thing I know truly though, is that taking a piece of food many would throw away and call trash, and using it to create something delicious is profound. Its almost like a sort of culinary alchemy, turning scrap metal into gold.

    Introductions to offal

    Cleaning cooked tongue

    Beef/Cow/Veal Tongue

    Using caul fat

    Caul Fat

     Cooking with brainsbrains for ravioli

    Offal Recipes

    Goat brain ravioli with morel tomato sauce and sage

    This is probably the most approachable way to enjoy brains

    goat brain ravioli with morel tomato sauce

    Nettle soup with tongue, creme fraiche and chives

    A bit like fancy spinach soup

    Spring Nettle soup, veal tongue, creme fraiche, croutons

    Sauteed liver with sweet chanterelle sauce, garlic mustard and apricots

    A dish that celebrates liver and how well it pair with sweet sauces, in this case, one made with chanterelles.

    veal liver and sweet chanterelle sauce

    Venison en crepinette

    One of the most approachable variety meats is caul fat, its like bacon from another universe. In this recipe I show how you can wrap a roast or steak in a mousse made from trim, then roll the whole thing up in caul fat and create a nice, refined dish.

    venison en crepinette

    Cornmeal crusted fish with peas, tongue, ramps, and yellowfoot chanterelle sauce

    Fish and peas is a classic Italian combination, here is a dressed-up take on it

    Perch With Yellowfoot Mushrooms, Tongue, Peas, and Ramps

     

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    Chef Alan Bergo

    HI, I'm Alan: James Beard Award-winning Chef, Author, Show Host and Forager. I've been writing about cooking wild food here for over a decade. Let me show you why foraging is the most delicious thing you'll ever do.

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