Hello Thomas,

>But I asked if they had beef heart, which my usual place
>stopped selling. No, but they did have pig heart. OK, so I got 400
>grams of pig heart, it was great, for less than the cheapest cut of
>meat at the cheapest supermarket in town. And they will get the beef
>heart for me if I order it.

I envy your ability to buy offal. It’s getting harder and harder to find
it here. Butchers keep saying that the public don’t want it any more. I
noticed that in supermarkets, first the kidneys, (and then the skin plus
most of the fat) disappeared from pork chops. Pigs’, lambs’ and calves’
livers are the only commonly available kinds.

I live close to one European country that loves offal in every shape and
form, and another that is rapidly losing that tradition. Sadly, we import
most of our meat from the latter source.

As a child, we were very poor, and my mother, a great cook, made delicious
meals from offal for five days of every week, a different one for each
day. She used liver, kidneys, heart, sweetbreads and tripe. Few people
would touch the last three these days.

As I’m in a CJD zone, I’m rather off brains just now, but they are *such*
a delicacy.

I once tried pigs’ testicles, and they were very like brains, I seem to
remember, but it’s not a common item at the butcher’s these days ;-)

And please, for anyone who has a perverted sense of humour like mine, *no*
jokes about my perfectly serious comparison between balls and brains <g>

I was interested to read the Western definition of ‘offal’ in Websters. It
is very telling about prevailing views on these delicious and nutrient-
packed foods.

1. The rejected or waste parts of a butchered animal. (The parts that
constitute offal vary with time, place, and cultural tradition.)

2. A dead body; carrion.

3. That which is thrown away as worthless or unfit for use; refuse;
rubbish.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Kassutta,

Persephone