The varietal meats are a favorite of many other cultures, but not so much in the United States. Growing up my love of offal has come in leaps and bounds. As a tot I was a moderate fan of liver, having a bit of cheap chicken liver pate when visiting the grandparents for Thanksgiving. I then discovered foie gras, and became a pointy-toothed savage whenever it was around. I used to cringe at the thought of tongue and bone marrow, but now I realize just how flavorful that stuff is.
Offal can be easy to come by, too. Buy a packed duck and you get some liver. Buy a packaged rabbit and you get kidneys. Tongue is sold in pretty much every supermarket I’ve ever seen. They are usually well-used muscles or organs, so treat them like tougher cuts of meat (the shank or chuck, for example). Give ‘em the low and slow treatment, especially liver, which isn’t a muscle but which food science guru Harold McGee says is the most used of all land animal organs and has very little connective tissue.
My quest to consume every part of an animal’s body is now held up in the usual areas. I’m still not a huge fan of kidneys, I’m intrigued by the thought of eating brains (though never had the opportunity), and I’m not anytime soon going to be known as Mr. Lamb Fries.
A couple of weeks ago in class, we made sweetbreads—which are the thymus and pancreas glands—and it was my first time cooking or eating them. I wasn’t too enamored of them, to be honest, mostly because they tasted like nothing but the a la meunier
e sauce served with them. But I’m dying to try the ‘breads at Jean-Georges or some other amazing restaurant to see what they do with them.
e sauce served with them. But I’m dying to try the ‘breads at Jean-Georges or some other amazing restaurant to see what they do with them.Jacques Pepin in his La Technique says that lamb and calf sweetbreads are the best, but that only calf sweetbreads are available in the United States (not sure if this is true, as I thought several U.S. restaurants have featured lamb sweetbreads).
If you’re looking for an easy entrée into cooking sweetbreads, here’s how we did it:
-- Take the sweetbreads and peel away the membrane, also taking care to cut away any bruised or bloody areas of the organ. Wash it off and dry it well. Ideally you want to press the sweetbreads down with weight overnight to remove liquid and to prevent rubbery end product.
-- Once pressed, run the sweetbreads through a breading mixture—flour, egg wash, bread crumbs—and sauté them briefly in butter. Reserve the sweetbreads and pour off any excess fat.
-- Put more whole butter in the pan, deglaze a bit with some lemon juice and throw in some capers to make a basic a la meuniere sauce. Once the butter is brownish, add some chopped parsley and pour a small amount over the sweetbreads.
-- Take the sweetbreads and peel away the membrane, also taking care to cut away any bruised or bloody areas of the organ. Wash it off and dry it well. Ideally you want to press the sweetbreads down with weight overnight to remove liquid and to prevent rubbery end product.
-- Once pressed, run the sweetbreads through a breading mixture—flour, egg wash, bread crumbs—and sauté them briefly in butter. Reserve the sweetbreads and pour off any excess fat.
-- Put more whole butter in the pan, deglaze a bit with some lemon juice and throw in some capers to make a basic a la meuniere sauce. Once the butter is brownish, add some chopped parsley and pour a small amount over the sweetbreads.
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