11.8 Offal and variety meats

Offal falls into two groups. Muscular offal, such as heart, tongue, tripe and oxtail, is muscle. Glandular offal, such as liver, kidney and sweetbreads, is gland. Like all meat, offal is a potentially hazardous food.

Liver

Liver is very fine in texture and has almost none of the fiber bundles found in red meat. It has no grain, so it is tender and you can slice it whichever way you like. Calf's liver is the favorite and is often sautéed with onions. Pork liver tastes stronger and goes mostly into pâté; lamb liver is milder.

Before cooking sliced liver, peel off any membrane and snip out the veins with scissors. For crisp fried liver:

• Cut the slices into strips 1 to 1½ inches wide.
• Sprinkle them with lemon juice.
• Coat them in seasoned flour, then in milk and egg, then in cracker crumbs.
• Fry in hot oil for 3 to 4 minutes a side.

Chicken livers cook quickly. Sautéed, they firm up in about 6 minutes, and can then be puréed with butter and cream and chilled into a smooth pâté. For chicken liver stroganoff, they are sautéed, covered, over low heat for about 5 minutes, then warmed with sour cream; do not let the sauce curdle.

Kidney, heart and tongue

Lamb and pork kidneys are smooth and bean-shaped. Beef kidneys are lumpy, with reddish-brown lobes and deep clefts, and are very tough; they need long, moist cooking. Kidney pie is a well-known European dish.

Heart is sold whole, halved or sliced. Inside it are string-like sinews; take them out if you will stuff it. Heart can be cooked by dry heat: stuffed and roasted whole, or sliced, seasoned and pan-fried. Anticuchos are pieces of beef heart grilled on a skewer.

Tongue has a coarse skin that only comes off after long, slow simmering, six to eight hours. Once skinned, it slices well and is quite tender, and its gelatin gives it a rich taste. Before cooking, it is often corned or pickled. Braised like a pot roast, it is the lengua of Latin tacos.

Tripe, sweetbreads and brains

Tripe comes from the stomach: it is the muscular lining inside. It is smooth or honeycombed, depending on which part of the stomach it comes from, and is sold fresh or pickled. Washed or dressed tripe has been boiled and bleached, which is why tripe in shops is usually white. Only moist heat breaks down its rubbery texture, so it goes mostly into soups and stews.

Sweetbreads are the thymus glands. They are pinkish white, and those from calves are a great delicacy. A calf's sweetbreads reach their biggest at five to six weeks of age, then shrink as it grows older. Soak them well in cold water, then blanch them so the outer membrane can be peeled off. Then braise them, or chill, slice, bread and pan-fry them.

Brains spoil very fast, so they are usually frozen at the processing plant right after removal. They are mild and delicate, are cooked like sweetbreads, and are very high in cholesterol. Calves' brains are the ones most used.

Oxtail, cheeks and caul fat

Oxtail counts as offal although it is not an organ. It is more bone than meat. It is used mostly for soup, and once properly braised its meat is very rich. Beef and veal cheeks are not strictly offal but are growing in popularity. Pigs' heads make headcheese, meat from the head set in jelly made from its cooking liquid.

Caul fat is the thin, lacy sheet of fat that covers a hog's stomach. It is used to wrap lean meat, fillings and sausage meat. Braising, the usual method for the tough offal, is taught earlier. see chapter 10: Why it works on tough meat