Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Hi all,
I've been buying all my pork & beef by the whole or half animal for the past few years from a couple in Maine with a small organic farm and this past year I asked for all the "additional stuff" including tongue, heart, cheeks, liver (I've gotten the pork liver before and used ntsc's pate recipe -awesome!!) and marrow bones, (which I've also gotten before and sometimes they're great and sometimes they're not)

So with the beef liver I tried just the standard liver & onions last week and it was pretty great - the only problem was that I didn't remove the "skin" and so that was really tough & chewy. I made the tongue & cheeks in the slow cooker with a mustard horseradish sauce that I got from epicurious. The texture was really soft and weird and the sauce was not good. Turns out I think I don't like dill, I made a couple of things recently with dill (mushroom barley soup, borscht and this sauce) and didn't like any of them.

So I've still got tons of liver, the heart and the marrow bones. Suggestions for those are very welcome and I would love to hear any ideas on what to do with the tongue to make it better. Also, is there anything else I'm still missing ???
Kate

Kate,

I love marrow bones, and one of the all-time classic dishes which uses them is pot au feu. Some recipes don't call for them, but they are traditional.

You've probably not heard of Thomas Keller's book Under Pressure, and I know you don't have a sous vide set-up (google this if you're not familiar), but he has a chapter on variety meats in there which could be inspiration for trying things. For example he has a recipe for corned beef tongue, and a confit of calf's heart. There's another for milk-poach calves liver. It would be worth seeing if your library has a copy of the book.

My favorite offal is sweetbreads. If they're on a menu (and it's a good restaurant), I order them. I rarely make them as I have no access to them, and not everyone in my house feels the same way about them, but every once in a while I do slip them in. They're a little more difficult because of the need to purge, poach, peel and press, but worth the effort. I have a wonderful recipe for sweetbreads with Madiera, leeks and mushrooms if you're interested.

Amy

Amy,

I was raised on sweet bread, calve's tongue and mock chicken legs. In Wisconsin's dairy country, veal was cheaper than chicken.

I'd love the recipe for sweet breads.

Tim

ps: One of my DIL's ordered sweet bread(sic) in New Orleans and was she surprised!

Sweetbreads with Madiera, Leeks and Mushrooms
Yield: 8 servings

2 lbs. sweetbreads, purged, poached, peeled and pressed
S&P
butter for sauté
2 medium leeks, white and light green only, cleaned, sliced into 1/4" half moons
1 c. shitake mushrooms
seasoned flour
1/2 c. Madiera
1 1/2 c. veal stock
crème double, to finish (difficult to find in the states, but if you have access to really high fat cream, an acceptable alternative)

Clean the sweetbreads well and season with salt and pepper.
In a medium sauté pan over medium heat , melt 2T butter. When hot, add the leeks and season with salt. Sauté until soft and add the mushrooms. Continue to sauté until all liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms just begin to color. Adjust seasoning and remove from pan.
Reserve leek mixture and add more butter to the sauté pan.
Lightly dust the sweetbreads with the seasoned flour. Adjust sauté pan heat to medium high and when the butter is hot, add the sweetbreads. Sauté until nicely browned on one side, about 3 minutes, and then turn to brown the other side. Add reserved leek/mushroom mixture. Deglaze pan with Madiera and reduce by half. Add veal stock and continue to reduce to sauce consistency. Finish with reduced cream and season with salt and pepper. Serve in a vol au vent with pommes puree.

Enjoy!

Amy

What animal do sweetbreads come from?

Technically, they can come from a variety of animals, but mostly you'll see them from veal.

Amy

I love pickled tongue - there are lots of recipes for that. This is a good one:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tongue-355169 and liver and onions. Someone on TOBB suggested soaking liver in milk first to make is very tender and sweet. I cook bacon first, then onions until soft, and then the liver. I use beef liver not calve's.

I've made this one from Epicurious. It was very tasty, but beef liver is one of those good things I can get too much of.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... Sauce-2509

I also like to make this one. It calls for chicken livers, but I think it could be good with other types of liver as well.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... ons-235725

Not a fan of the offal although my folks did try (I came how once to an entire pigs head simmering away on the stove... scrapple). My Swiss cooking magazine, as luck would have it, has a recipe this month for sweetbread soup with a kind of cabbage and bacon. Apparently you can buy it from the butcher cleaned and cooked. Who knew?

Mary

Pete,

My apologies for posting while sleeping. Where and who did that chart come from?

Tim