Offal, the nasty bits

Just wanted to make a thread dedicated to offal. Kidneys, liver, brain, lungs, tongue, stomach, heart, balls, etc. what do you eat and what do you avoid, and does it differ depending on animal species or age?

I love heart and liver from rabbits, never tried from deer or goat yet. I’m a Bit wary of kidney due to the association with urine, but slowly opening up to it. Love ordering other offal from restaurants that I don’t have to prep myself, like pork/beef tripe and intestine, but wonder if it would be the same if I had to do it all myself from wild game, I’d probably gross myself out.

Have a go at making you’re own pâté, yum.

deer ,pig or sheep heart is ideal meal...sliced 1/4" ish thick and quick fried and eaten as is or on white bread with real butter and salt n pepper is DEVINE....
Ive been known to cook eye fillets for others and eat heart myself...not fussed on liver n kidneys ,possibly hangover from how was served them as a kid....steak n kidney pie/casserole is fine...but not really a favourite.
brains of sheep on toast was treat when on farm with the old man...havent done it for years...

Just learned that ‘blood curd’ exists, it’s like a blood tofu. Wonder what deer blood curd would taste like.
Attachment 162507 @Moutere yep I have. Bunny liver pate is bloody delicious , just a bit of a pain to prepare.

Lamb kidneys cooked on an old coal range used to be the breakfast of champions.

I love liver, from a young red or fallow sliced into thin strips coated in seasoned flour and lightly fried so still slightly pink in the middle with fried onions,garlic and bacon bits on a bit of toast with lots of butter.
I'll eat heart to be polite but wont keep one for myself....to strong a offal flavor for me.

Roast Ox heart, stuffed with breadcrumbs, tomatoes and onions. My wife won't touch liver or kidney but rates Ox heart, as long as she doesn't have to cook it.
Old man is a butcher so grew up eating heart liver kidney, tongue, sweetbreads and brains.
Brain and onion patties, yes please. Or liver/kidneys fried up with onion toms and zucchini, on fresh white bread, with a bit of salt and pepper.

I like deer heart and tongue. Both go great on fresh bread with lashings of butter, seasoned with salt, pepper and a pinch of garlic powder.

Tongue is a bit tougher and needs a bit more prep, but is a delicious treat.

Heart, is one of my favorite cuts, I get shitted off if my shot goes through the heart and ruins it, at least if you accidentally blow shoulder out theres still plenty of salvageable meat but if you destroy the heart there's not much left :D
Never leave the heart behind :P

Deer liver makes a great meal with bacon as a complimentary. A little whole grain mustard sauce on top and you have a meal fit for a Rushy.

Deer balls...they’re under a buck...[emoji6]


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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

brains of sheep on toast was treat when on farm with the old man...havent done it for years...

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Brains look and sound so gross, but they should be tasty because of how fatty it is. I guess the hard part is getting to it without getting bone shards everywhere. Ive heard that eating deer brain is a big no no but goat brain is ok.

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

I'll eat heart to be polite but wont keep one for myself....to strong a offal flavor for me.

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Thats different, usually it is the other way round: Heart being easy eating and liver being too strong a offal flavor.

I'm a little squeamish when it comes to offal. I know that's daft as I've enjoyed lamb liver in the past and pate is right up my street. Reading with interest.

EDIT: I have smoked trout roe before and that was pretty good.

Whenever i homekill a lamb i keep liver ,kidneys, heart ,tongue and sweetbread, all cut thinly light dusting of flour fry gently put aside ,add onions garlic, fry , add all together with bisto to thicken, a light simmer , dont over cook , saltn pepper . cheers

@JessicaChen offal is another great example where Brining/Soaking makes a great improvement to table quality of game meat etc.I grew up basically living on Home Kills/grown on our own farm & never was a great fan of offal as frankly my mum was a shit cook ,where as my Nan was a fantastic Old School cook who made the best Steak & Kidney pie l have ever ate.

As you get older l guess your tastes change as while working in the Top End of Oz Water Buffalo tongue cooked by proper Old School station cooks was something l really looked forward to as well as real old fashioned fruit cakes & scones .Our hunting group, who have been hunting together 14 years this year, have a tradition going back a decade where a mate who worked as a Chef in European Ski Resorts for a decade uses the Canada Geese we shoot to make a fantastic Pate,we also under his tuition (mainly swearing) that on our Hut fly in trips we have a meal of thinly sliced deer heart ,cooked with a copious amount of butter with onion,garlic,thinly chopped home made Pancetta & mushrooms served on a bed of spaghetti .It is a meal that always brings back memories in between long over due hunts or China Flu lock downs.

Disliking tripe is perfectly understandable but the rest are some of the best bits. Heart, liver and kidney diced and fried in butter with onions and just a hint of chilli served on mashed spud with lots of butter and a gravy made from the pan juices and burnt bits is a no 1 go to for us.
There is anot her bonus about we eating the offal so far not mentioned. You get to closely inspect it before you eat and will pick up any abnormalities/disease that you may otherwise miss that could affect the entire carcass.

Having deer liver heart and kidneys for tea tonight. Younger the animal the better I believe.
Still those hinds my son shot we were able to mostly harvest all of the above. So it's a mixed bag and it's all eatable.
Still like the filets though, well venison is all good even the sausages.
KH

We usually have the heart, fried up in butter, that night in the hut. Never kept liver but love lambs fry and bacon. Won't have tripe in my kitchen. When I was a kid the sweet breads were always mine and the old man reckoned skirt steak had the best flavor (I believe that is the diaphragm) cooked up in a stew. Only reason I don't bring liver out is I don't like to have ofal out of a fridge any length of time.

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Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Do you eat the marrow out of chops?

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Who doesn’t? Love that stuff.

From the book Cazador game offal and the rest by Dariush lolaiy some may remember Cazador from the 80s, the deerstalkers had dinners there, and if you wanted something special for a party you could arrange to bring in a dead thing and Tony would cook it a myriad of ways for your group, and sometimes throw in a bottle of plum brandy
Anyhow here's an offal recipe from the book.

Greetings All,
As a child we ate all sorts of offal. Brains, sweetbreads, hearts, liver, if it was cheap we ate it. Later, shooting goats for meat the liver always came home. I always sat the liver on top of the gut bag and carefully sliced the gall bladder of. A cobber and I did a trip into Kiwi Saddle hut long ago. I gave him stern instructions that the liver from any deer he shot was to be recovered on pain of him being marched out there to get it. I slow cooked it in the camp oven with my share of the bacon. He was not having a bar of his share going anywhere near the liver. I was enjoying my tea and looked around and the bugger was spooning the left over gravy his bacon. Another plus for liver I expect. My son always drops me of the liver from deer he has shot, even though he is not all keen on it.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by swanny

Only reason I don't bring liver out is I don't like to have ofal out of a fridge any length of time.

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Thats fair, I think liver goes bad quite quickly. I usually cook them up immediately or freeze it.

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Originally Posted by muzza

I use a maggi cup of soup satchet - usually mushroom - to make the sauce for my version of liver and bacon.

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Il have to try that if I am too lazy to get ingredients for a cream sauce made from scratch, or if shops are closed. When I make a cream sauce I would use onion, mushrooms, thyme, deglaze with white wine, add stock, parsley, fresh cream.... its a pain but its so good.

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Originally Posted by Phil_H

Sharon isn't big on offal and most definitely won't let tripe or tongue anywhere near her kitchen.

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I don't blame her on the tripe side of things. Cleaning it is smelly messy work.

@Marty Henry thanks for the recipe, I have it saved now and will give it a go when I gain access to the ingredients. Hoping to get a deer in the next couple of months.

Fresh is best when it comes to ...offal , not that i call it that , offal lends its self to something you just throw away , no matter what your eating , liver , heart , kidney straight off the hoof is outrageously good , i rarely freeze any of it , lamb or beef sweetbreads BOOM , im not one to gorge my self , well maybe sweetbreads but the point is a good nosh up now and again probably offsets the rashers of bacon i toss in with it , along with eggs . black & white pudding or haggis is also very good for breakfast & in my opinion that stuff is the life blood , sticks to ya ribs all day .
Happy Hunting .

I generally go for most kinds of offal, but in particular the tongue, followed by heart, liver and kidneys.

The family's meal of choice is beef tongue served hot, but not corned.

Had my 7 year old recently tell his 5 year old brother that he would enjoy the beef brisket because it tasted like tongue

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Originally Posted by Phil_H

Just to add to my post above, quite co-incidentally I came across this old article in Stuff from 2012

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/796...-hunters-death

It is about one of NZ victims of Mad Cow disease. He was a keen hunter and a meat inspector. He was John Andrews aged 63 years. Possibly some on the forum knew him or knew of him.

Cheers
Phil

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Does cooking not make the meat or brain safe ?

I eat the deer heart if it is not buggered but the rest is pig bait

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Originally Posted by Phil_H

From all my reading @veitnamcam, no. The offending prions are extremely heat resistant. You would have to turn the brain into cinder before it would be effected.
This is in contrast to like of tuberculosis. Cooking tuberculosis infected meat makes it safe to eat. The danger is getting the disease into your lungs through the blood or as been suggested even the vapour that can come off the gut when you are gutting it....but I digress.

On that point though, even though I eat offal I always inspect it well before I choose to take it as food. Slightest little thing that even give a hint of and abnormality I throw it.....usually into the maggot farm for the chooks.

Cheers
Phil

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Good to know.
I had thought if things were properly cooked there was very low risk of catching anything.
Makes sense now the massive cull they did a few years back.

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Originally Posted by Phil_H

From all my reading @veitnamcam, no. The offending prions are extremely heat resistant. You would have to turn the brain into cinder before it would be effected.
This is in contrast to like of tuberculosis. Cooking tuberculosis infected meat makes it safe to eat. The danger is getting the disease into your lungs through the blood or as been suggested even the vapour that can come off the gut when you are gutting it....but I digress.

On that point though, even though I eat offal I always inspect it well before I choose to take it as food. Slightest little thing that even give a hint of and abnormality I throw it.....usually into the maggot farm for the chooks.

Cheers
Phil

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Great thread.

Must be mentioned the NZ cases of Jakob-Kreutzfeldt Disease are sporadic and NOT linked to diet and seems to strike people in their 50s and 60s. The 1990s UK New-Variant JKD was linked to eating diseased meat.

In the UK, the problem arose from massively magnifying a rarely occurring disease - through the practice of grinding up cattle, brains and all, and adding this mix to cattle feed. It was a gross break in the golden rule, to do as you'd be done by, to feed any species a cannibalistic diet, and who would have predicted the consequences.