Perusing my local grocery store yesterday. Found a great big beef kidney for $1.22, and a beef heart for $4.50. Pack of frozen calf livers, also about $4.50.
There are also anecdotes of people asking the butcher for these things, and they practically give them away because nobody wants them.
Does anyone here eat these things regularly? To my mind offal like this — as well as high quality eggs and milk — are much healthier than muscle meat. Way more vitamins and minerals in the organs.
Yet a muscle meat ribeye is priced at a multiple per pound relative due to consumer choice (supply & demand).
It has never been easier to eat healthy on the cheap. I am happy to take advantage of higher quality food at lower prices while Average Joe loads his cart up with muscle meat, Cheerios, and Coca-Cola.
I do not but I have been considering it. I have never been able to stomach liver. I think that is because my mother was the worst cook on the planet. She only knew one temp which was overdone.
Now since I grew up in a red neck family, I have had many organ meats over the years but I have not had any in proably 20 years.
I have had liver done several different ways and have never liked it.
My dad loved it and my father in law loves it.
It was the one meal my mom would not make us eat when she made it. She would make liver for my dad and her and a different main dish for everyone else.
Try it with bacon and onions…ass, not liver. Liver is disgusting.
I’ve tried liver, brains and a couple other organ meats, no thanks. If I was poor and can buy chicken for around a buck a pound I’d never eat organ meats.
Definitely overcooked. I made that mistake when I first started cooking it.
I eat it gently sauteed in butter, heat medium-low. Once the outer layer is light to medium brown (nothing dark or burned looking), I flip it. Pull off heat once the other side reaches same doneness.
I don’t particularly love the taste of liver, but I think that is due to decades of being conditioned to eat highly palatable, low-quality nutrient-bereft garbage. When you examine packs of hunters out in the wild – including human hunter tribes – they prioritize the liver in a fresh kill. A wolf pack’s alpha eats the liver. Human tribes that Weston Price visited 90 years ago would feed their pregnant (& soon to be pregnant) women liver to ensure lots of Vitamin A, iron, etc for healthy babies.
The beef kidney was surprisingly flavorful in a non-gross way. I ate a bit of it raw, and a bit of it gently cooked. Both were good.
I also think pasture-raised eggs go a long way towards providing nutrients, although I would not limit my animal foods strictly thereto.
Beef liver aside, I do like organ meat.
I could eat chicken liver and gizzards all day long.
And braunschweiger is my all time favorite sandwich meat.
I have never had foei gras, but I would like to try it.
Must be a Kentucky thing. My mother was also a poor cook, admitted that she overcooked everything, but did it anyway. Probably something about only learning to fry everything.
As for organ meat, liver is OK if done right. Don’t get it now because my wife hates it and the aroma when cooking it. Well made foie gras is quite tasty. I once tried tongue, once was enough. I’ve had brains and eggs a few times. My grandfather loved it for breakfast. If you didn’t know what it was, you’d likely think it was some sausage mixed in.
I’m not a fan on liver or kidney. These are the filters of the animal. I’m sure they are fine but until Joe turns us to full blown socialist where we have to ponder if we are going to eat our dog then I’ll pass for now.
My mom taught me the immense pleasure of a rare steak, and hamburger, but my wife will only let me order those medium rare. But my dad ordered steak “well done”, and he would ensure to tell the waiter, no pink or he will send it back.
