Offal Good

Chicago lifts foie gras ban!!!

“Mayor Richard Daley has repeatedly called the ban “silly” and said it made Chicago “the laughingstock of the nation” but was, until now, unable to convince council members to repeal the ban.”

That says it all!!

Congrats Chicago you won.

Forbes Traveler on offal

Forbes traveler wrote a piece called:

Deluxe Nose-to-Tail Meals

Joshua M. Bernstein 2008-05-12 11:30:52.0

© Heath Robbins Photography

LAUNCH SLIDESHOW
Offal-y good ox hearts, lamb spleen and more

Colin Alevras, chef at New York City’s Tasting Room, recently unveiled a luxury burger that blew diners’ minds. While the $23 price tag is chump change compared to the $75 foie gras-stuffed, black-truffle-topped burger at NYC’s DB Bistro Moderne, what sets Alevras’ meaty masterpiece apart is not decadent toppings but the meat itself.

The Old MacDonald burger, as Alevras dubs it, blends a grass-fed cow’s heart, liver, bone marrow, tongue, flatiron, brisket, shank and clod. It’s topped with raw cow’s-milk cheese and “mushroom ketchup,” and it’s served on a beer-bread bun. Fries are, incidentally, extra.

“I haven’t seen anybody reconsider the burger from the cow up. We don’t hide behind its casualness. We are remaking the world’s most overlooked food,” the chef recently told NYmag.com’s food blog, Grub Street.

Is Alevras’ creative hamburger a weirdo anomaly? No way. Nowadays, chefs are branching out beyond meaty ribs or tender filet mignon to embrace a nose-to-tail eating ethos.

“If you’re going to kill the animal, it seems only polite to use the whole thing,” British chef Fergus Henderson famously wrote in his book “The Whole Beast,” which touted the tastiness of tripe, trotters and internal organs. While many diners prefer to forget their flank steak was carved from a mooing creature, high-end dining now features a new face. Plus some hearts. And, occasionally, intestines.

“Organ meats don’t have to mean Mom’s overcooked liver,” explains Andy Nusser, head chef at New York City’s Casa Mono. The tapas-style small-plates eatery, which is owned partly by Mario Batali, offers unusual cuts—such as lamb’s tongue, duck hearts and cock’s combs. The latter is the fleshy red cap atop a rooster’s head; at Casa Mono, it’s simmered with red wine and porcini mushrooms until fork-tender.

“We’re returning to using the whole animal,” says Nusser, who has taken to sourcing entire organic pigs. “You’re not just picking up a phone and ordering parts. This makes you want to use every last bit. You don’t want to throw anything out.”

Especially not the noggin. “I really enjoy cooking a pig head,” Nusser says. “I like slowly simmering it and pulling the meat off the head, then taking the liquid it was cooked in and turning it into gelatin. It’s a journey to look at an ugly pig’s head and turn it into a beautiful terrine.”

Nusser’s adoration of long-overlooked animal parts has company. At Portland’s Le Pigeon, diners can opt for “foot and tail” croquettes or duck-duck-pigeon—roast squab with duck confit salad and duck-liver vinaigrette. Boston’s KO Prime slings sautéed calves brains and bone marrow with oxtail marmalade. Philadelphia’s Ansell Food + Wine fashions a fine, crispy lamb’s tongue served with mint.

But perhaps America’s most adventurous nose-to-tail restaurant is San Francisco’s rustic-Italian Incanto. On offer are lamb’s necks, pig trotters and a five-course nose-to-tail tasting menu perhaps including venison kidneys and chocolate-blood panna cotta. For executive chef Chris Cosentino (who also runs www.offalgood.com), it’s not about Fear Factor-style extreme eating. “It’s about viable cuts of meat that we have thrown into the trashcan for years. There’s been lots of talk about sustainable eating, and offal is sustainable eating. If you buy leeks, do you just throw away the tops? Or do you use them to make broth? When it comes to food, we’re very wasteful.”

Historically speaking, America wasn’t always so wasteful. During World War II, thrifty cooks stretched their ration stamps by buying cuts of tongue. In the South, pig’s hooves, fried pork skin and chitterlings (a fancy word for pig intestines) have long been integral to Mason-Dixon Line cuisine.

“We’ve gone away from our history,” Cosentino says. “Years ago, a slaughter was a neighborhood affair. One guy would come around and slaughter one or two pigs, then someone would make blood sausage. And the casing was made from the pig’s intestines. People always ask me, ‘Why do you serve poor people’s food?’ That’s really disrespectful to the animal.”

For squeamish eaters, Cosentino suggests a “gateway” meat: beef hearts. “It’s a muscle, not a filter”—like liver or kidneys—“so it’s very rich and has lots of minerals. It changes people’s perceptions.”

Harder to alter are USDA guidelines. The government bans numerous victuals like lungs that Cosentino would love to toss into a skillet. “Cow’s udder is absolutely delicious—it’s a shame I can’t serve it,” he says. “Flavor-wise, it’s a mammary gland, so it’s very rich and fatty.”

Such is the crux of whole-animal eating: Creating luxury where it’s least expected. For this reason, “cooking nose to tail isn’t a fad; it’s never going to go away,” says Casa Mono’s Nusser. “The bottom line is that people that are trying hearts and organs are surprised to find that they’re delicious. Anyone can cook it. To cook a pig’s head, you just need a big pot. Just go to a butcher and ask them to split the pig head in half, then you’re halfway there.”

PETA loves meat

It seems from a recent article in the NY times that was brought to my attention by serious eats, that PETA wants there to be meat, but only if it’s grown in a petri dish in a lab by doctors to feed the masses by 2012. And the best part is that they are going to pay one million dollars to the person who can produce it in viable commercial amounts.

Now isn’t this how we got into the factory farming problem that they are fighting against now, or is it just a way for them to get the bacon they all truly crave and can’t admit to eating. It is a sad day when we would rather cut down whole rain forests to produce soy beans, and waste precious dollars on fake meat production. I almost feel like we are stepping into a star trek scenario, and the next thing we know, we will only need to push a button and our whole meal will magically appear on a plate produced by scientists in a lab. Personally I would like my food to come from the farm, whether it be animal or vegetable. To me this is just a bullshit hoax for them to draw some needed attention to themselves.

For some interesting information on how fucked this process is listen to

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show on the subject. Its like working with monsanto chemically altered food using artifical flavors and chemicals to make meat, yum I cant wait.
My 2 cents: take the money and spend it on stopping factory farming together with chefs that can help make that happen.

James Beard nominates offal

This past year has been a bit of fun, but when Meredith Arthur and Eric Slatkin came from Chow to film a video about obsessives they were all ears and, as usual, I was all mouth. Luckily, they caught every last bit of it on film. To my surprise, the video: Obsessives : Innards Working has been nominated by The James Beard Foundation in the webcast section under the Television Food Show, Local and National Category. Congratulations to Meredith and Eric for putting together a great video! As I wait with baited breath until June 6th-8th for winners to be revealed, I am honored that this has happened. Thanks to Chow for giving me a soap box to stand on and an outlet for the offal cause to be distributed worldwide. My voice may be loud, but I think we all know by now that the internet is louder.

Offal eaters rejoice…our voice is being heard.

Offal and Meat Consumption in the News

With all the recent books on meat such as “The compassionate carnivore” and “The shameless carnivore: A manifesto for meat lovers” and the recent USDA debacle in chino, I have been getting alot of calls about my beliefs on animal husbandry as well as my fondness for offal cookery. Here are two articles about meat and offal consumption that I have recently been interviewed for.

Respecting the meat you eat.

Haute cuisine, head to tail

Both of these articles are showing the growing interest in properly raised animals as well as offal cookery. Its amazing how people are changing their tune, do to the effects of mass factory farming leaving a huge foot print as well as its disrespect to the animals.

Its great to see that people want to turn the clock back and save these cuts as well as return to proper farming techniques. This is a breath of fresh air, which I look forward to seeing more of.

Brains and Eggs Music To My Ears?

My brother in law Michael Hearst and band mate Joshua Camp of One Ring Zero have written a great song for me based on a recipe that I wrote. This is a new project they are working on, taking chefs recipes and turning them into songs. This a bit similar to ” As Smart As We Are” where he worked with authors who’s writings became the lyrics and basis for his music threw the whole album. I have included the recipe below, follow along to the song and then make yourself some dinner.

A little back ground on the dish. On the south side of Chicago was the largest livestock market and meat processing center in the world Approximately one mile square, it served the nation’s great meat packing companies and many smaller ones located in the surrounding area. A dish that became very common among the butchers was brains and eggs, this came to be know as the butchers treat.

Click the title below to here the song.

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Brains and Eggs “The butchers treat”

serves 4

2 calves brains

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp white wine

5 eggs

2 Tbsp cream

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp chopped chives

1 tsp chopped tarragon

4 slices of rustic country bread

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

Black pepper t taste

To poach the brains, fill a large pot with water and add the salt, lemon juice, and white wine. Bring the water to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer, so the water is lightly bubbling. Gently place the brains into the water and simmer them for 5 minutes. Remove the brains from the water with a perforated spoon and place on a plate. Put the plate in the refrigerator to cool for about 15 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, cream and herbs and beat with a whisk until light. Season with salt and black pepper. Set in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Once the brain is cold and firm, dice it. Heat the butter in a sauté pan over high heat until it starts to brown. Then add the cubed brain pieces and gently stir until golden brown. Turn the heat down to medium. Pour in the egg mixture and fold the brains and eggs together with a rubber spatula until it’s all cooked; it will be light and fluffy.

While the eggs are cooking, grill or toast the bread so it will be warm when the eggs are finished. Serve the brains on warm plates with a piece of buttered toast.

Closer to the bone sweeter is the meat!!

Speaking of using fish guts heres a dish that I prepared for the chefs of Sebo when they came in for dinner on Monday night. Here is a step by step on how I use tuna spines as a great dish. It was great to cook them a dish that is based around food they work with everyday. One chefs trash is another chefs dish.

Must go Sebo

I know this site is where you all come to learn or hear about bits and bobbles, well I love fish more then you know. So I wanted to share my favorite place to go for Japanese take a look and see. They also do izakaya  Japanese bar food on sunday nights which always has some great dishes I have never seen before. In April we are cooking together for a special dinner using all of the fish guts and all, with sake pairings from beau at true sake. I look forward to seeing you there cause thats where I will be on my days off for dinner, come see what you are missing.

Offal Good Q&A

The Astor center in NYC is holding a Q&A with yours truly. You can get all the details here, at Astor Center NYC.