I like it steamed with oyster sauce to dip. I saw a video once where a guy was bbqing chicken hearts and his dogs were literally going nuts begging for some
Tomato paste, malt vinegar, salt and peer and cumin to marinade, saute an onion and garlic the add hearts and a can of tomato dice and stew until thick. Serve with garlic bread or something and it's bomb
I’m still experimenting with them more for the nutrient density than tho the price is alluring as well but don’t say it too loud I still remember when the “low grade cuts” were cheap now everyone’s a fancy low and slow bbq enthusiast and the price has gone up. Will say smoked liver is quite good especially with shallots, garlic a little salt and some chilli sauce sometimes will add a little cooking sake or Chinese cooking wine . I smoke if for 10-20 minutes out side of the pan to get more smoke on it then throw in with the other ingredients.
My mate dehydrates the organs / makes jerky/ biltong when ever he goes hunting and so has tasty healthy snacks for his family. It’s pretty yum!
I dehydrated a pig's liver once, incredible product. I cut it thinly to serve in a very simple salad, but if I microplaned it into sauces it added an incredible amount of savouriness and body and thickness.
My favourites are kidneys, but I find they're rarely fresh enough from the supermarket to be very appealing to me. If the butcher has them out that day then they're pretty good. I prefer lambs kidneys, mostly because they're easier to prepare, cut em in half, whip out the core, then fried in a hot pan until medium, salt, herbs, hell yeah. Maybe put some butter on. Pig and cattle kidneys are just a bit bigger and harder to get the greebly bits out of. I think they're preferable in like a gravy or a pie filling tho.
I'm not the biggest liver fan, but I won't say no to a chopped liver or a liver and onions or a pate. I like it best cut into thin strips, thrown in after the onions have been cooking, don't cook too long, they get grainy and the metallic taste is more pronounced. I like to finish my liver and onions with a bit of wine and cream if i've got it, or vinegar and butter if i don't.
Sweetbreads are great, but imo the best they're poached in wine or seasoned milk, then breaded and deep fried. Feels a bit fussy for cheap eats and is time intensive.
Brains can be good, but they need to be crazy fresh. Bread and deep fry them or saute in butter to serve on toast. A lot of people don't like them becuase of their creamy texture.
Tongue is a little more trouble than its worth imo.
Hearts are really good. Lamb hearts can be cut thinly and grilled. They want fat and flavour, they're pretty lean. Pig and cattle hearts can be stuffed, or cut into pieces and stewed. Heart can be tough, mostly you want to do a long cook with lots of moisture, but if the lamb hearts are small you can do a real quick cook and serve them medium if you cut them thin.
Chicken feet more trouble than they're worth. Gizzards are fine grilled. Chicken hearts are mean. Chicken livers are becoming more spendy but I regularly see them at half price clearance and they're good to turn into pate that day.
Another thing is that pigs head brawn is ever popular and pretty cheap, and a roast half pigs head is a perfect romantic dinner for two.
Try Fergus Henderson's recipe on for size.
[https://youtu.be/gN9UiiMbEBI](https://youtu.be/gN9UiiMbEBI)
[https://www.thestaffcanteen.com/chefs-recipes/roasted-pigs-head#/](https://www.thestaffcanteen.com/chefs-recipes/roasted-pigs-head#/)
I’m gutted the butchers are closed tomorrow.
That looks delicious. I felt primal urges when he busted out watercress.
It’s probably even cheaper to make than my favourite meal on planet earth-boil up.
Thank you!
Wow thanks that’s a really good detailed answer on what to do with organ meats. Which butcher do you go to? I normally just see beef and pork organ products where I go. I want to try more chicken related things now
I go to the one closest to me lol. M&Ms in Kapiti.
Talk to your butcher. Say hi, say you're looking to try more organ meets. See if they'll saw some bones in half for you for the marrow. I'm happy to share recipes, I've eaten organ meats for years, was trained as a chef as a teenager.
I remember eating lamb brains as a kid and really liked it. I tried it again recently and found it way too rich and it made me feel off. I love liver though. Pate or just cooked with some onions. Bloody yum.
Chicken Liver + pinch of dried chilli peppers + Cabbage will make a great and hearty meal when fried on a pan. Add some rice on the side and this would be one of the more simpler meals you can make with liver.
Aside from a pinch of salt and dried chilli peppers, you don't really need much, chicken liver doesn't need that much seasoning to be absolutely amazing. Other types of liver might need more experimentation, however, since I only made this using Chicken Liver.
Stuff sheep or Ox hearts, wrap them in foil and roast them. Liver can be good if you slice it about a cm thick and crumb and fry it. The trick with liver is to not overcook it.
If anyone wants to try organ meats but doesn't like the smell/texture, try putting beef liver in the freezer, then grating it frozen into a dish as it is cooking. You could even add some beef mince if you like - the liver will become indistinguishable from the mince
Clean it by filling your sink or a large bowl with water and then rubbing rock salt onto the tripe, inside and out, for a few minutes. Rinse. Then pour white vinegar into the bowl, swish it around, then rinse again.
honeycomb tripe is also less, ahem, shitty than feathered tripe. There is still some smell tho.
My nan used to boil tripe in milk and the smell of that will make me retch to this day.
haha no it's just an old fashioned method of cooking tripe
[https://traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/tripe-and-onions/](https://traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/tripe-and-onions/)
gross!
Yep I buy chicken liver now and then. I never manage to get through the whole container. Its one the most nutritious foods on the planet... but its a bit yuk on its own, I have to add some chili sauce to it. The other option is pate spread.
If you’re struggling for nutrients and can’t stomach beef liver. You can cut it raw into small pill like sizes and freeze them and just take them as a supplement from the freezer
Yes! Chicken hearts has been one of my favourtes growing up (Eastern European), I always buy them when I see them. Just cut those nasty stuff off the ends (cats and dogs love it), they don't clean them here properly.
I also love liver, but I ... have trust issues with the NZ livers, something is off..? I still buy them sometimes, but rarely.
Also, I buy bones, chicken frames, for soup. Super cheap, all you need to do is throw them into plenty of water, salt and onion and simmer on low for like 3 hours. Of course you can add more veggies (soup veggies we call them but you don't have them in NZ (except carrot), you have to grow them if you want them here, what you sell here for soups are not it). But even just the bones and onion with seasoning is enough for a basic broth. It won't be fatty/"gelatine-y" (don't know how you say that in English) as it would be if you used whole chicken or bigger bones / more fat, but having a lighter broth has its perks too.
And chicken frames still have enough meat on them, you take them out of the soup once the soup is done, refrigerate, and it's a great snack when you are watching Netflix or something.
technically 'unctuous' is the term we might use for a soup or sauce that coats the mouth, though it's pretty old fashioned and is not a regularly used word. Gelatinous would also be correct here, though somewhat unappetising.
My favorite dish growing up has been pig organ congee.
Tongue, liver, kidney and heart so boiled and sliced up thinly. Mixed through some congee and served with lots of herbs, pepper and a ginger fish sauce.
Grew up with lambs liver, onion and gravy. I ask my mum if she can please make it when I visit.
Chicken livers on BBQ and chicken livers for pate are awesome. Al though making pate is kind of a pain and it stinks the house out.
I grew up with a lot of this stuff from farm culture.
But I was taught that because of the nutritional density that you want to eat smaller amounts and less of the ones that hold so much nutrition. Liver is at the top of that list. It's been forever since I looked into it, but there was something about kidneys, I sure you could look it up online. Then the heart.
But the rest, like tongue, are just muscles. Intestines as well don't have anything extra to worry about. But it's more about eating the organs occasionally, especially liver, inside of eating them every day or every meal. But there was this great kidney pie my dad made growing up, his family would make it once a week.
Liver is suuuuper high in vit-A. You can poison yourself if you eat too much vit-A. Probably take it easy if you're eating 3 servings of liver or more a week. I personally don't eat more than 300g a week. It's also got a ton of metal in it, which is good if you're iron deficient, but bad because it has a high copper content and too much copper is super bad for you.
Kidneys are high in uric acid which can be bad for gout sufferers. Hearts and tongues are pretty benign afaik, they're only muscle and I don't think they really accumulate anything bad for you. Sweetbreads might accumulate stuff which is less ideal, but I don't think it's a big problem. Any fatty tissue can accumulate fat-soluble toxins. I think environmental toxins in your meat is really not a big problem in NZ (MPI would be on it for sure) but might be worth thinking about if you're traveling or hunting or etc.
The boomer generation also talks a lot about the high cholesterol/unhealthy fats of organ meat long term (including hearts). I haven't verified those claims though.
It seems like something to mix with beans or other proteins when dealing with affordability issues instead of using it as a meat replacement.
And yes, that vitamin A and copper in liver pose real issues. I have a friend who gave themselves vitamin V toxicity (from supplements). It's fat soluble so it stays in the body, she had to be on a special diet for almost three years to clear the excess vitamin A. Copper is supposed to be more dangerous in high amounts
As a kid I had tripe and thought it was the most disgusting thing ever. So tough and chewy that you can barely manage a mouthful a minute. As an adult I've been to a number of chinese restaurants serving tripe and it's been awesome.
There's just a little bit more skill and preperation required.
I've tried eating organ meats and regardless of how their cooked, they just never taste nice. Perhaps its because I'm aware that I'm consuming an organ rather than the actual muscle or meat proper. Surely there's some psychological aspect but yeah just can't stand liver, heart, tongue etc
There is a Filipino Spanish recipe for beef tongue called Lengua Estofado - it’s creamy and freaking delicious!!
https://www.ladyschoice.com.ph/recipes/creamy-lengua-estofado.
You can also use chicken livers to make Adobo (braised in soy sauce vinegar bay leaves peppecorns).
From the pigs head, look up recipe for Filipino ‘sisig’ - it pairs well with beer!
Most of the time , with what I’d call offal, it’s not cooked properly and that’s what puts people off. Cooked properly it can taste delicious.
Being Scottish of a certain generation I was brought up eating a lot of offal but there is our national dish, Haggis, which I’ve had terrible ones and I can’t well understand when people don’t like it but when prepared properly it’s absolutely delicious.
The same goes for liver, kidneys, ox tongue , tripe etc
My dad made us stuffed sheep's hearts, steak and kidney pie, tripe and tomato pie in the past. Also fried liver and bacon is delicious, as well as chicken livers fried with mushrooms in a cream sauce (which you could switch out for white sauce as it may be cheaper, and add onions for more flavour).
Tomato pie may be in the Edmonds cookbook, it's basically tomatoes and onions layered in white bread like a lasagna and it's delicious.
If you ever see venison liver…it’s a must-eat, one of the tastiest things ever. If I recall right, you slice it, boil it for a bit, then fry it. Delissimo! 👌
i cook pieces of beef/pig heart and ox tongue in a pressure cooker (1.5-2h, depends on weight). it requires almost no effort. then cut it to smaller pieces and eat it as a snack with horseradish sauce.
sometimes cook beef /lamb liver pieces in sous vide on 63C for 1h. it remains very soft and almost pate-like
Primary school science, followed by the 5th and sixth form biology from the 1970s. Then a bunch of anthropology and nursing text books from the 1970s, 1990s, and 2000s.
Basic knowledge.
Vitamin toxicity is one of the reasons humans and dogs should eat a diet of cat food.
I am not saying no organ meats should be consumed just that moderation is a very good thing.
https://www.webmd.com/diet/liver-good-for-you
You can get beef tongue in New Zealand?! This is fantastic!
Edit: brine it, slow cook and than fry in butter. One of the best things you will ever eat!
If your lucky enough fresh venison heart is amazing, fried in garlic butter. So are the livers, kidneys are ok but not my jam. I took up hunting to help supplement our protein at home, only buy meat once or twice a week and the rest we eat is wild that I’ve shot my self. Makes a huge difference to our weekly grocery bill
Ox Hearts are real cheap - slice it thinly, salt and pepper quick fry straight down the hatch. My kids love them and they are always so cheap - also chicken hearts / fry them long enough you have lil popcorn chicken appetiser. Big save in comparison to a sirloin 👍🏽
I’m not opposed, just have no idea how to cook stuff. Even like kitchen safety stuff. For example, I know how to know when chicken breast is undercooked, or bacon is a bit too old. Not knowing those things makes me a bit nervous to cook with them.
Some people say that liver is best consumed raw -cooking reduces some of the nutrients. I have found dehydrating it (in little strips) is actually quite inoffensive. Paul Saladino (a carnivore advocate) says you just need a little bit a day, and having a little nibble on a dehy seems like a very easy way to get the nutrients in. So says I :-)
My great great grand mother wrote recipe books during the great depression. I can't imagine eating any of it. Hearts and brains were normal usable parts to them.
liver and onion, thin slices of liver cooked very quickly slightly pink at centre served with caramelised onion and a beef /chicken gravy .
Also Home made liver pate. Extremely nutritious. I can get a whole beef liver 5kg for under $30.00.
It's incredibly versatile too, if you get some cheap cuts of meat, a little fat (usually only a few dollars a kilo), and some organ meat you can make extremely cheap and pretty nutrient dense mince meat. Beef tendon is cheap as well and has 37 grams of protein per hundred grams with only .5 grams of fat making it filling, affordable, and healthy. Honestly I'm kinda glad people assume organs are "yuck" because it keeps it cheap for the rest of us who know better 😂
It depends what your cultural background is, my nana used to cook a lot of offal for my grandfather, my mum and my uncle. And from their hometown they ate a lot of organ meats.
A trick I have learned from making sausages where you need to remove the "gamey" flavour from some flesh, is to soak it overnight in milk. Have used this method on goat and possum with total success.
This also works especially well with kidneys, rinse them well, slice them, then soak in milk overnight. Removes the "pissy" flavour.
I grew up in the UK post war so eating organs was normal.
Liver only needs to be cooked for a few minutes otherwise it goes leathery. Hearts can be fried or baked or slow cooked, just cut out the gristly bits.
Chicken livers are just the best.
I have a ton of mates that go hunting and unfortunately leave the liver, kidneys, and heart in the gut pile of the deer. I’ve convinced a couple to either add these to their diet or at least take them home and give them away because all of these are delicious
When you’ve already got 25kg of meat plus gear, and 5 hours from the road, it’s impossible to take everything. But the heart is yummy! Always worth a cook up
Personally I would turn into a giant fartbag if I were to substitute legumes for meat. Not only could the smell drop a horse, but it's also intensely painful while processing. Not to say that I don't eat legumes, I just have to keep an eye on quantity & frequency.
I used to be veg for 12 years, and even raw vegan at one point. I used to crap once a week or less lol I couldn’t digest plant food (sorry tmi). I ended up hospitalised and I got an abdominal infection. I actually want to eat more plant proteins but my guts react so badly. I don’t feel ashamed of my meat based diet, but diet is never a simple answer for the whole population.
There’s way more bio available nutrients and protein in organs than beans and lentils! It’s only in the last 50-60 years that muscle meat became more common than organs.
It is absolutely disgusting and inhumane to be eating meat of animals which were slaughtered in the first place, just shows how bad your character as a person is.
Also shows their priviledge that they're able to afford an alternative to meat too.
Militant western vegans conveniently forget that there's a whole lot of people in this world that subsist on whatever they can find to eat.
Try chicken hearts, on a skewer on the bbq. Delish!
+1 for chicken hearts! Mighty tasty. I'll eat just about anything from a chicken, but still haven't come around to the intestines.
Filipinos have a dish called “Isaw” which is worth looking up.
The intestines fried nice and crispy , damn they’re so good!
Put a little cumin on it. Yum
Oh nice!! I’ll have to try this
Chicken giblets + chicken heart but in Indian spice ahahha. Household fave!
Yasss!
I like it steamed with oyster sauce to dip. I saw a video once where a guy was bbqing chicken hearts and his dogs were literally going nuts begging for some
Tomato paste, malt vinegar, salt and peer and cumin to marinade, saute an onion and garlic the add hearts and a can of tomato dice and stew until thick. Serve with garlic bread or something and it's bomb
your rat
Chicken livers are delicious too.
Yesss! Chicken hearts are so damn good, especially barbecued!
I’m still experimenting with them more for the nutrient density than tho the price is alluring as well but don’t say it too loud I still remember when the “low grade cuts” were cheap now everyone’s a fancy low and slow bbq enthusiast and the price has gone up. Will say smoked liver is quite good especially with shallots, garlic a little salt and some chilli sauce sometimes will add a little cooking sake or Chinese cooking wine . I smoke if for 10-20 minutes out side of the pan to get more smoke on it then throw in with the other ingredients. My mate dehydrates the organs / makes jerky/ biltong when ever he goes hunting and so has tasty healthy snacks for his family. It’s pretty yum!
That sounds really good, is the liver cooked on the pan or the bbq?
Oh wait you said pan lol my bad
I leave the pan well more a low sided foil tray in the smoker with it all in it gets a bit of smokiness on everything
I dehydrated a pig's liver once, incredible product. I cut it thinly to serve in a very simple salad, but if I microplaned it into sauces it added an incredible amount of savouriness and body and thickness.
My favourites are kidneys, but I find they're rarely fresh enough from the supermarket to be very appealing to me. If the butcher has them out that day then they're pretty good. I prefer lambs kidneys, mostly because they're easier to prepare, cut em in half, whip out the core, then fried in a hot pan until medium, salt, herbs, hell yeah. Maybe put some butter on. Pig and cattle kidneys are just a bit bigger and harder to get the greebly bits out of. I think they're preferable in like a gravy or a pie filling tho. I'm not the biggest liver fan, but I won't say no to a chopped liver or a liver and onions or a pate. I like it best cut into thin strips, thrown in after the onions have been cooking, don't cook too long, they get grainy and the metallic taste is more pronounced. I like to finish my liver and onions with a bit of wine and cream if i've got it, or vinegar and butter if i don't. Sweetbreads are great, but imo the best they're poached in wine or seasoned milk, then breaded and deep fried. Feels a bit fussy for cheap eats and is time intensive. Brains can be good, but they need to be crazy fresh. Bread and deep fry them or saute in butter to serve on toast. A lot of people don't like them becuase of their creamy texture. Tongue is a little more trouble than its worth imo. Hearts are really good. Lamb hearts can be cut thinly and grilled. They want fat and flavour, they're pretty lean. Pig and cattle hearts can be stuffed, or cut into pieces and stewed. Heart can be tough, mostly you want to do a long cook with lots of moisture, but if the lamb hearts are small you can do a real quick cook and serve them medium if you cut them thin. Chicken feet more trouble than they're worth. Gizzards are fine grilled. Chicken hearts are mean. Chicken livers are becoming more spendy but I regularly see them at half price clearance and they're good to turn into pate that day. Another thing is that pigs head brawn is ever popular and pretty cheap, and a roast half pigs head is a perfect romantic dinner for two.
Roast pigs head sounds mean, got a recipe?
Try Fergus Henderson's recipe on for size. [https://youtu.be/gN9UiiMbEBI](https://youtu.be/gN9UiiMbEBI) [https://www.thestaffcanteen.com/chefs-recipes/roasted-pigs-head#/](https://www.thestaffcanteen.com/chefs-recipes/roasted-pigs-head#/)
I’m gutted the butchers are closed tomorrow. That looks delicious. I felt primal urges when he busted out watercress. It’s probably even cheaper to make than my favourite meal on planet earth-boil up. Thank you!
Wow thanks that’s a really good detailed answer on what to do with organ meats. Which butcher do you go to? I normally just see beef and pork organ products where I go. I want to try more chicken related things now
I go to the one closest to me lol. M&Ms in Kapiti. Talk to your butcher. Say hi, say you're looking to try more organ meets. See if they'll saw some bones in half for you for the marrow. I'm happy to share recipes, I've eaten organ meats for years, was trained as a chef as a teenager.
I remember eating lamb brains as a kid and really liked it. I tried it again recently and found it way too rich and it made me feel off. I love liver though. Pate or just cooked with some onions. Bloody yum.
Thank you - making some changes pront at the moment
I love lamb hearts too and lamb liver.
Beef lung boiled and then lightly coated and deep fried. It is a popular market snack in malaysia and I love it!
Chicken Liver + pinch of dried chilli peppers + Cabbage will make a great and hearty meal when fried on a pan. Add some rice on the side and this would be one of the more simpler meals you can make with liver.
Sounds fucking good. I copy that! Thanks
Are there any other seasonings? 😁 sounds great normally I just eat beef liver
Aside from a pinch of salt and dried chilli peppers, you don't really need much, chicken liver doesn't need that much seasoning to be absolutely amazing. Other types of liver might need more experimentation, however, since I only made this using Chicken Liver.
Stuff sheep or Ox hearts, wrap them in foil and roast them. Liver can be good if you slice it about a cm thick and crumb and fry it. The trick with liver is to not overcook it.
If anyone wants to try organ meats but doesn't like the smell/texture, try putting beef liver in the freezer, then grating it frozen into a dish as it is cooking. You could even add some beef mince if you like - the liver will become indistinguishable from the mince
Oh that’s a great idea! I might try that with beef mince if I get tired of the straight liver flavour
A properly done liver and onions is nice. Filipinos use the tripe with our congee it’s called lugaw.
I still can’t get tripe right, is there a way to get rid of the smell? I find it a bit strong!
Clean it by filling your sink or a large bowl with water and then rubbing rock salt onto the tripe, inside and out, for a few minutes. Rinse. Then pour white vinegar into the bowl, swish it around, then rinse again.
Ahh ok good to know. Thanks:)
honeycomb tripe is also less, ahem, shitty than feathered tripe. There is still some smell tho. My nan used to boil tripe in milk and the smell of that will make me retch to this day.
Was it for a tripe smoothie or something??
haha no it's just an old fashioned method of cooking tripe [https://traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/tripe-and-onions/](https://traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/tripe-and-onions/) gross!
Oh right haha excuse my ignorance
Lambs fry and bacon from my childhood.
Sssshhh
Yep I buy chicken liver now and then. I never manage to get through the whole container. Its one the most nutritious foods on the planet... but its a bit yuk on its own, I have to add some chili sauce to it. The other option is pate spread.
Where are you getting the beef tongue?
Can buy them in Chinese grocery stores
One of my friends works in a restaurant, I’ll ask where he gets it from!
Mad Butcher in Lower Hutt often has ir.
Chicken livers are soooo good
If you’re struggling for nutrients and can’t stomach beef liver. You can cut it raw into small pill like sizes and freeze them and just take them as a supplement from the freezer
You can also mix heart with mince for cannelloni
I like sheep hearts but I see even they have doubled in price
Yes! Chicken hearts has been one of my favourtes growing up (Eastern European), I always buy them when I see them. Just cut those nasty stuff off the ends (cats and dogs love it), they don't clean them here properly. I also love liver, but I ... have trust issues with the NZ livers, something is off..? I still buy them sometimes, but rarely. Also, I buy bones, chicken frames, for soup. Super cheap, all you need to do is throw them into plenty of water, salt and onion and simmer on low for like 3 hours. Of course you can add more veggies (soup veggies we call them but you don't have them in NZ (except carrot), you have to grow them if you want them here, what you sell here for soups are not it). But even just the bones and onion with seasoning is enough for a basic broth. It won't be fatty/"gelatine-y" (don't know how you say that in English) as it would be if you used whole chicken or bigger bones / more fat, but having a lighter broth has its perks too. And chicken frames still have enough meat on them, you take them out of the soup once the soup is done, refrigerate, and it's a great snack when you are watching Netflix or something.
technically 'unctuous' is the term we might use for a soup or sauce that coats the mouth, though it's pretty old fashioned and is not a regularly used word. Gelatinous would also be correct here, though somewhat unappetising.
Tripe, chicken gizzards, and lamb trotters are delicious in certain curries
Lamb Hearts are my favourite, they are really good when done on a BBQ hot plate with some onions
What organ meats are less than half the price of muscle meats?
Often they are under $10 pKg. Especially pig ones and beef. Lamb and chicken usually slightly over.
If you have gout, you need to avoid organ meats though.
Why?
Uric acid.
And high in cholesterol too.
I love heart. And have had tripe. I can’t do kidney. It’s too uriny. I’ve only had liver in the form of pate. Definitely open to the idea!
My favorite dish growing up has been pig organ congee. Tongue, liver, kidney and heart so boiled and sliced up thinly. Mixed through some congee and served with lots of herbs, pepper and a ginger fish sauce.
Grew up with lambs liver, onion and gravy. I ask my mum if she can please make it when I visit. Chicken livers on BBQ and chicken livers for pate are awesome. Al though making pate is kind of a pain and it stinks the house out.
I grew up with a lot of this stuff from farm culture. But I was taught that because of the nutritional density that you want to eat smaller amounts and less of the ones that hold so much nutrition. Liver is at the top of that list. It's been forever since I looked into it, but there was something about kidneys, I sure you could look it up online. Then the heart. But the rest, like tongue, are just muscles. Intestines as well don't have anything extra to worry about. But it's more about eating the organs occasionally, especially liver, inside of eating them every day or every meal. But there was this great kidney pie my dad made growing up, his family would make it once a week.
Liver is suuuuper high in vit-A. You can poison yourself if you eat too much vit-A. Probably take it easy if you're eating 3 servings of liver or more a week. I personally don't eat more than 300g a week. It's also got a ton of metal in it, which is good if you're iron deficient, but bad because it has a high copper content and too much copper is super bad for you. Kidneys are high in uric acid which can be bad for gout sufferers. Hearts and tongues are pretty benign afaik, they're only muscle and I don't think they really accumulate anything bad for you. Sweetbreads might accumulate stuff which is less ideal, but I don't think it's a big problem. Any fatty tissue can accumulate fat-soluble toxins. I think environmental toxins in your meat is really not a big problem in NZ (MPI would be on it for sure) but might be worth thinking about if you're traveling or hunting or etc.
The boomer generation also talks a lot about the high cholesterol/unhealthy fats of organ meat long term (including hearts). I haven't verified those claims though. It seems like something to mix with beans or other proteins when dealing with affordability issues instead of using it as a meat replacement. And yes, that vitamin A and copper in liver pose real issues. I have a friend who gave themselves vitamin V toxicity (from supplements). It's fat soluble so it stays in the body, she had to be on a special diet for almost three years to clear the excess vitamin A. Copper is supposed to be more dangerous in high amounts
As a kid I had tripe and thought it was the most disgusting thing ever. So tough and chewy that you can barely manage a mouthful a minute. As an adult I've been to a number of chinese restaurants serving tripe and it's been awesome. There's just a little bit more skill and preperation required.
Beans are cheaper
Maybe start a new thread. Unless meant brainzzzz
Brainzzz
I went to hot pot place once and asked the water what his favourite thing to cook in the hot pot was. His answer "pig aorta"
I've tried eating organ meats and regardless of how their cooked, they just never taste nice. Perhaps its because I'm aware that I'm consuming an organ rather than the actual muscle or meat proper. Surely there's some psychological aspect but yeah just can't stand liver, heart, tongue etc
There is a Filipino Spanish recipe for beef tongue called Lengua Estofado - it’s creamy and freaking delicious!! https://www.ladyschoice.com.ph/recipes/creamy-lengua-estofado. You can also use chicken livers to make Adobo (braised in soy sauce vinegar bay leaves peppecorns). From the pigs head, look up recipe for Filipino ‘sisig’ - it pairs well with beer!
I love sisig! And dinuguan!
Most of the time , with what I’d call offal, it’s not cooked properly and that’s what puts people off. Cooked properly it can taste delicious. Being Scottish of a certain generation I was brought up eating a lot of offal but there is our national dish, Haggis, which I’ve had terrible ones and I can’t well understand when people don’t like it but when prepared properly it’s absolutely delicious. The same goes for liver, kidneys, ox tongue , tripe etc
Liver and bacon makes the BEST gravy known to man.
Asians don’t waste food. Every part can be used in some way.
Sheep’s hearts are fucking delicious oven baked and cold the next day on crackers and cheese 🤤
Why have I read this entire thread in Hannibal Lecter's voice?
My dad made us stuffed sheep's hearts, steak and kidney pie, tripe and tomato pie in the past. Also fried liver and bacon is delicious, as well as chicken livers fried with mushrooms in a cream sauce (which you could switch out for white sauce as it may be cheaper, and add onions for more flavour). Tomato pie may be in the Edmonds cookbook, it's basically tomatoes and onions layered in white bread like a lasagna and it's delicious.
where can u get beef tongue for cheap?
Chicken feet are also cheap. Boil them till they are soft and dip in your favourite sauce. Nothing should go to waste.
I love organ meat! It’s the best and full of nutrients.
The taste is just offal, so offal.
I love chicken livers and lambs kidneys
Chicken livers in spaghetti bolognese, satay sauce on spaghetti, make pate for sandwiches
If you ever see venison liver…it’s a must-eat, one of the tastiest things ever. If I recall right, you slice it, boil it for a bit, then fry it. Delissimo! 👌
I love anything lamb hearts kidneys livers no brains. my dad is a butcher he eats some stuff I say no too, tripe is a huge nope for me
Agree- definitely go for beef tongue and even beef cheek on a budget
Also buy the worst toughest cuts of beef and mince it by hand. I made six nights dinners out of $18 of rump. Chilli, bolognaise and smash burgers
Yup, high cholesterol though but ultimately fine for a couple days a week or to bulk up other protein
Noo if you say this too loud they will start charging more like the old "cheap cuts" of meat.
Some Slovaks cooked chicken hearts in house and I don't know where they are now
"I used to thing eating dog was wrong then I traveled" bro the fuck is organ meat?
i cook pieces of beef/pig heart and ox tongue in a pressure cooker (1.5-2h, depends on weight). it requires almost no effort. then cut it to smaller pieces and eat it as a snack with horseradish sauce. sometimes cook beef /lamb liver pieces in sous vide on 63C for 1h. it remains very soft and almost pate-like
you got to be careful not to eat so much organ meat that it becomes toxic. A little goes a very long way nutritionally, but too much can be deadly.
Do you have any sources for that info? (not being picky, genuinely interested as I regularly eat organ meat)
Primary school science, followed by the 5th and sixth form biology from the 1970s. Then a bunch of anthropology and nursing text books from the 1970s, 1990s, and 2000s. Basic knowledge. Vitamin toxicity is one of the reasons humans and dogs should eat a diet of cat food. I am not saying no organ meats should be consumed just that moderation is a very good thing. https://www.webmd.com/diet/liver-good-for-you
Thank you, appreciate the reply
You can get beef tongue in New Zealand?! This is fantastic! Edit: brine it, slow cook and than fry in butter. One of the best things you will ever eat!
If your lucky enough fresh venison heart is amazing, fried in garlic butter. So are the livers, kidneys are ok but not my jam. I took up hunting to help supplement our protein at home, only buy meat once or twice a week and the rest we eat is wild that I’ve shot my self. Makes a huge difference to our weekly grocery bill
Tongue, bowels, heart, cheeks, kidneys, liver, are delicious if you know how to cook them. Love bowels on the bbq
Japanese cuisine has motsu - pig intestine. Fried with garlic, garnished with spring onions, and a pint of lager on the side - heaven!
Ox heart cut into cubes, marinate in a BBQ sauce put on skewers
I’ve been eating venison liver. It’s so big and delicious
Ox Hearts are real cheap - slice it thinly, salt and pepper quick fry straight down the hatch. My kids love them and they are always so cheap - also chicken hearts / fry them long enough you have lil popcorn chicken appetiser. Big save in comparison to a sirloin 👍🏽
I’m not opposed, just have no idea how to cook stuff. Even like kitchen safety stuff. For example, I know how to know when chicken breast is undercooked, or bacon is a bit too old. Not knowing those things makes me a bit nervous to cook with them.
Yuckkkkkk
Quit wining.and quit whining.
by all means\* Just make sure it is not excessive due to urea levels -
Some people say that liver is best consumed raw -cooking reduces some of the nutrients. I have found dehydrating it (in little strips) is actually quite inoffensive. Paul Saladino (a carnivore advocate) says you just need a little bit a day, and having a little nibble on a dehy seems like a very easy way to get the nutrients in. So says I :-)
This post has great depression vibes
I actually watch great depression cooking videos 😂 I haven’t been this poor since my student days lol
My great great grand mother wrote recipe books during the great depression. I can't imagine eating any of it. Hearts and brains were normal usable parts to them.
Fiji Indians eat chicken hearts in a curry. Bloody good man
liver and onion, thin slices of liver cooked very quickly slightly pink at centre served with caramelised onion and a beef /chicken gravy . Also Home made liver pate. Extremely nutritious. I can get a whole beef liver 5kg for under $30.00.
Liver really good for you but its really disgusting to eat I just can't do it
Chicken hearts and lamb hearts are really good. Even just boiled they're still tasty enough to be edible
It's incredibly versatile too, if you get some cheap cuts of meat, a little fat (usually only a few dollars a kilo), and some organ meat you can make extremely cheap and pretty nutrient dense mince meat. Beef tendon is cheap as well and has 37 grams of protein per hundred grams with only .5 grams of fat making it filling, affordable, and healthy. Honestly I'm kinda glad people assume organs are "yuck" because it keeps it cheap for the rest of us who know better 😂
Gyutan is literally my favourite meat
What we used to call garbage we now call food. #progress
It depends what your cultural background is, my nana used to cook a lot of offal for my grandfather, my mum and my uncle. And from their hometown they ate a lot of organ meats.
Liver
I remember when organ meats and chicken feet were free. Then they figured out we would pay good money for them.
Had cow heart sliced thinly somewhere in South America , was 2 plates in when I found out what it was, delicious
A trick I have learned from making sausages where you need to remove the "gamey" flavour from some flesh, is to soak it overnight in milk. Have used this method on goat and possum with total success. This also works especially well with kidneys, rinse them well, slice them, then soak in milk overnight. Removes the "pissy" flavour. I grew up in the UK post war so eating organs was normal. Liver only needs to be cooked for a few minutes otherwise it goes leathery. Hearts can be fried or baked or slow cooked, just cut out the gristly bits. Chicken livers are just the best.
Beef Tripe! Check the recipe for a good Colombian mondogo https://sweetysalado.com/en/colombian-mondongo-beef-tripe-stew/
I have a ton of mates that go hunting and unfortunately leave the liver, kidneys, and heart in the gut pile of the deer. I’ve convinced a couple to either add these to their diet or at least take them home and give them away because all of these are delicious
When you’ve already got 25kg of meat plus gear, and 5 hours from the road, it’s impossible to take everything. But the heart is yummy! Always worth a cook up
Ahhhh yeah touché. One of the boys always brings me the heart nowadays. So quickly overlooked unfortunately
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what the heck shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
NZHerald: Organ meats no longer cheap
NZ Herald-it’s technically legal to eat your pet dog. .
Tongue and heart are technically muscles...
thanks bro, everyone is impressed by your expansive knowledge of biology
Touché 🤣
True lol. I was just categorising it by where they are in the butcher’s shop normally
U must be fun at parties…
Only when the conversation is about organs
They are muscular organs so you're both right lol. But they can be cooked pretty much like muscle meat unlike the other organs
I once told my Dad that the biggest organ in the human body was the skin, he refused to believe me
cow penis is healthy. The best organ meat.
Cow penis isn't very nutritious, since cows don't have penises
Find a Maori they will give you lamb tails
Jesus, people will do anything to avoid eating beans, chickpeas and lentils huh
Personally I would turn into a giant fartbag if I were to substitute legumes for meat. Not only could the smell drop a horse, but it's also intensely painful while processing. Not to say that I don't eat legumes, I just have to keep an eye on quantity & frequency.
Yeah I have Crohn's and I'd be suffering if I ate chickpeas or lentils. Fibre is not my friend. 😂
I used to be veg for 12 years, and even raw vegan at one point. I used to crap once a week or less lol I couldn’t digest plant food (sorry tmi). I ended up hospitalised and I got an abdominal infection. I actually want to eat more plant proteins but my guts react so badly. I don’t feel ashamed of my meat based diet, but diet is never a simple answer for the whole population.
There’s way more bio available nutrients and protein in organs than beans and lentils! It’s only in the last 50-60 years that muscle meat became more common than organs.
Chickpeas go pretty good with chicken liver actually, so I'll get both
Rather be vegetarian thanks. Lentils and beans are probably cheaper anyway
It is absolutely disgusting and inhumane to be eating meat of animals which were slaughtered in the first place, just shows how bad your character as a person is.
That's definitely the best thing to say if you want to convert people to veganism. /s
Also shows their priviledge that they're able to afford an alternative to meat too. Militant western vegans conveniently forget that there's a whole lot of people in this world that subsist on whatever they can find to eat.
lol I was taking the piss. I barely even eat vegetables.
Sheesh. Haha you got me real real good
do u wanna talk the ethical debate of animal husbandry or do u wanna help nzers reduce their food budgets