It sounds Offal-ly good to me!

[hqueen13]

I read and article about this that talked about using a ground mixture of offal and putting it in things like chili or spaghetti sauce. Some places will sell a ground mixture "for pets" but it is the same exact quality as it would be for people, they just can't legally sell it for human consumption. I really want to try it, but the other half is to green about it!

 

[ORChick]

I read and article about this that talked about using a ground mixture of offal and putting it in things like chili or spaghetti sauce. Some places will sell a ground mixture "for pets" but it is the same exact quality as it would be for people, they just can't legally sell it for human consumption. I really want to try it, but the other half is to green about it!

Not sure I understand. Why can't they sell it for humans? Because it is offal, or because it is ground?

I believe that some Italian recipes for pasta sauce call for adding liver. If I were trying to *sneak* some of these meats to others who mightn't eat them if they knew what they were, I think the best bet would be to add ground heart (if you can find it) to ground beef, and proceed from there. Heart doesn't have the distinctive taste that is found in liver and kidneys.

Because most people (I am generalizing, but I believe this to be a true statement from anecdotal evidence), most American people that is, won't eat offal it is hard to find now. My mother often cooked liver, kidneys, tongue, and I know that the large community of ex-pat French in the town where I grew up also used brain and sweetbreads, and probably other pieces as well. I admit that I didn't eat any of it except the liver. Now, when my tastes have matured, about the only thing I can find is liver (and, yesterday, kidneys). I have seen in various sources that ox tail is often put into the category of *offal*, but I don't see that myself; to me ox tail is stew/soup meat. I think, in view of the recent history (wasn't an issue in my youth) of mad cow disease, and Kreuzfeldt Jakob in humans, I would steer clear of brains. But the others? Why? They are nutritious, lean (for the most part) pieces of meat. Granted, the flavor needs getting used to, and many people never can, but, if one does, there can be some good results. Of course, back when my mother was cooking offal it was also a frugal measure, as these cuts were very cheap. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. My butcher told me yesterday that carcasses aren't delivered to him with the kidneys anymore; they bring in a better price going straight to high end restaurants.

 

[hqueen13]

ORChick there are strange laws in every state. I am not sure what is in the blend that we get, exactly, but it may be meats that are often not sold for humans, but are perfectly fine to eat if you know what you're doing. In many states you can't buy raw diary (NC being one of them, its only marketed for "animal consumption", in MD you can only purchase it as part of a "buying club"), so I think the offal is somewhat similar. I wish I could get him to consider using it in strong dishes like chili or others because I think it would be really good.

But then he tells the story that his dad used to hunt, and made chili with the ground venison, and had a party. People raved over it, until they found out it was deer!

 

[ORChick]

Oh, I know about the strange laws. Oregon is also a state where raw milk is hard to find or buy. I can see why ground offal might be "for pets only", as perhaps they are not actually up to the quality levels that are recommended for people. I think anyone who has ever had a dog knows that they will eat things that we - their owners - would consider rank. And offal has a short shelf life, so perhaps this ground mixture might be a little past that? So I am not so sure that I would buy such a thing for myself. But if I could see and smell it in its whole state I could more easily make a judgement on how good it is. So, are liver and kidneys, etc. completely off the menu in your state? I find that even weirder than the raw milk issues (not that I agree with those )
I once bought a bag of marrow bones for soup from a local butcher, mentioning at the time what I intended to do with them. The woman behind the counter, horrified, said that I couldn't do that, they were meant as dog bones only, as there was no guarantee that they had been kept under constant refrigeration. I thought that was crazy - giving these possibly iffy bones, raw, to my dog was OK, but cooking them for hours to make stock was not? I bought them anyway, and assured her that I would be going to the animal shelter that afternoon to adopt a dog (The bones passed the *sniff* test, and made perfectly acceptable stock; but the cats, and DH, vetoed the idea of the dog )

 

[~gd]

Oh my goodness! What an image of those lungs inflating and deflating!!

I just about gagged when we saved the chicken feet for my friend. I mean, could there be a filthier part of any animal than their feet?

HUM you are supposed to clean them first. We would throw them in boiling salted water then clean under running water. "if in doubt, throw them out" no great loss of a couple of feet. My great aunt used to make goat foot jelly [no ideal of how it was made] the taste was ok but the texture seemed weird. My favorite is pickled toung.

 

[hqueen13]

Honestly, OR, I'm not sure about what the laws say or not because we buy all our meat through a buying group (chicken being the only exception I think, and even then we still buy organic), so I don't even pay attention to the regular meat counters. I know your average meat counter isn't going to carry any of that, you'd have to go to a specialty shop to find anything, and heck, you might even have to order it or something, who knows! From our source, I would trust the beef blend for dogs in my meat. Everything that they sell is top most quality, and I think part of it is that there wouldn't be a market for the offal mix for people, nobody would buy it, and it may even be "leftover" offal that isn't sold as quickly so they grind it for the dogs. I mean, really, how many hearts and livers and tongues are they selling each time they butcher? I would bet it isn't as many as they have a supply of. I am sure that it receives the same treatment as the human food does from their supply. I would trust them, but I could see where it might be easy to be skeptical of others.

Hilarious about the bones! That is sad that people have become so far removed from the traditional cooking anymore. "Stock" to them comes in a can off the shelf! And yes, there are a number of things in this house we would NEVER give to the dog! We want it for US!!