Ok, so some things in the golden era were not too cool...

[jamespowers]

but they wouldn'y have been >>>> :hungry: ___ lol

You sure? Salad is salad you know.

 

[1961MJS]

I loved heart meat as a kid -- heart sandwiches with mustard and ketchup, yum. Tripe was also no stranger to our table, even though it looked like something you'd use to scrub out the bathtub.

One of the most popular brands of hot dogs here when I was young -- Tasty Bite -- was made with offal (or "variety meats" as they euphemistically called it on the label ) but most of the national brands are actually made with good meat. I've actually made sausages for a living, and never saw sawdust, stale bread, floor sweepings, ears, tails, eyeballs, or any other of the horrific ingredients people imagine actually going into them.

However, if you buy those modern "snack" sausages sold at gas stations and bars, you better read the label close. There's a pretty good chance "beef lips" will be listed as one of the major ingredients. Yummy.

Hi Lizzie
I eat at several different Vietnamese restaurants around here and have eaten the Pho with all of the trimmings (tendon, tripe etc). The fact that it's tripe doesn't gross me out, but it FEELS like eating beef fat.

I think you may have worked in a better sausage factory than Buck did, but then he never actually mentioned WHY he wouldn't eat it, he just wouldn't. I remember showing my friend Alan the label on a small sausage I bought at a backwoods 711 in Northwest Alabama and the primary ingredient was Beef Lips, the second was associated beef parts. Tasted great, but with a slight chemical aftertaste. You know, when lips is the first ingredient... I have a problem with liver because when they served it in college, it had a green tinge to it.

One of the things that Dad told me about growing up was getting meat out of the barrel. They smoked their meat, put it in large oak barrels, and covered it with renderings (lard I think). When you went to get meat, you scraped off the rancid lard off the top, pulled the meat out, and covered everything back up. He did live until he as 92, so it can't have been that bad.

Later

 

[amador]

We used to have a "barbacoa de cabeza" as a tradition from the old days. A fire pit was dug, a bed of coals established, a wet burlap wrapped beef head was placed and covered with more coals and capped with soil overlayer. Hours later the head recovered, cracked open and the brain scooped out and mixed with the meat off the neck and face. Served on yellow corn tortillas.

Prions put an end to this.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

We used to have a "barbacoa de cabeza" as a tradition from the old days. A fire pit was dug, a bed of coals established, a wet burlap wrapped beef head was placed and covered with more coals and capped with soil overlayer. Hours later the head recovered, cracked open and the brain scooped out and mixed with the meat off the neck and face. Served on yellow corn tortillas.

Prions put an end to this.

I saw some of those heads at a Latino supermarket once (along with chicken feet -- first time I'd ever seen them). I was wondering what it was for. And I do love lengua and cabeza tacos and burritos. :hungry:

 

[Flicka]

You know, I never could understand why it's more gross to eat lips than butt (ham, anyone?). I eat tounge, heart, liver, pigs trotters at christmas(though I never made that one), a Swedish dish called 'pölsa' similar to haggis that is tradtionally sometimes called 'mashed lungs' (says all you need to know, right?). I don't eat kidney because I don't like the flavour but ox cheek is a delicacy. I love blood pudding. I've had lamb's testicles and my Thai friend's aunt's curry with wobbly cubes of duck blood. When I was a poor student, I cooked chicken and lamb heart quite often (btw, Lizzie had it right, slice them, turn them in flour and fry in butter - whisk out the pan with red wine afterwards and you have a great sauce) It's all dead. Let us not fool ourselves. We're eating corpse.

To me it's about respect and ecological sustainability. I think it's madness to raise a pig and not eat everthing but the squeal or how the saying went. Meat should, in my opinion, be more expenisive which in turn would mean better treatment of animals. Have you seen the way they keep chickens? I'd rather eat lips from a happy cow than filet from one of those chickens, I'm telling you.

In the Era (at least here) meat was a delicacy. People ate every bit and piece of animals and made them go a long way. I think that is something we need to return to. Frown at sausages because of lips? Really. You'd kill an ox and eat the filet and do what with the rest?

I'm actually doing an experiment with only cooking the kinds of food they ate back then, in the same amounts too. I'll report back on how it goes. I'm surprised how well it echoes what people say when they tell us to eat 'greener' and more ecologically sustainable.

 

[rue]

I commend you for eating like that Flicka

Honestly though I think it depends on where and how you were raised. I wasn't exposed to any of those things and neither was any of my family as far as I know, even during WWII or the Depression, so it's very strange to me that anyone would eat them. Although I can understand why you would think it's odd that someone like me would be put off by eating tounge, heart, liver, pigs trotters etc, because I was thought of as odd in places like Virginia and Ohio for eating artichokes and avocados, whereas in California, where I was raised, it was completely normal.

 

[amador]

Another intreresting practice. Easter family get togethers. Saturday confession by itinerant priest. Sunday Midnight Easter mass and communion, all sharing in the spirituality of redemption, gospel from the New Testament, etc.
Then back to the house, elder patriarch would then gather the families and while we all watched would cut the throat of a young goat, cabrito. The agonal bleating would send primal shivers down everyones spine, we shared in the emotion of the sacrafice. No readings from any testament.
Then the goat would be prepared and cooked in it own blood, Cabrito en Sangre. Eaten with our fingers sopping up the blood gravey with corn tortillas and licking our fingers. The hide was tanned and prepared and later presented to the couple with the latest child to be born.

Old testment, new testament. We felt which had a more personal lasting effect. We tried to rise to the one that was the Last Offering.
We celebrated both.

 

[Miss Golightly]

How would you recommend cooking heart? I have at least 5 lamb's hearts in the freezer. Normally I cook them up for the cats (boiling them) but I'd like to try heart meat. I just can't figure out how to cook it well so it is tasty and not tough.

I used to love heart meat as a kid - my Mum used to make it for my Dad a lot - from what I can recall she used to stuff it (with the same stuffing you would put into a turkey or chicken) and wrap it in greaseproof paper and tie it with string and put it in the oven. It was really tasty - then again, I don't mind eating liver and kidney so eating heart isn't too much of a stretch for me.

 

[Flicka]

I used to love heart meat as a kid - my Mum used to make it for my Dad a lot - from what I can recall she used to stuff it (with the same stuffing you would put into a turkey or chicken) and wrap it in greaseproof paper and tie it with string and put it in the oven. It was really tasty - then again, I don't mind eating liver and kidney so eating heart isn't too much of a stretch for me.

Oh, I gotta try this! *puts heart on shopping list*

I'm going to admit I'm pretty alone here these days in my attitude. Part of it comes from being used to live under financial constraints (I have no idea how my mother managed to feed us), partly from just having weird tastes and being adventurous. I've always been willing to try anything, but I've always had weird taste. I refused hamburgers and pizza as a kid (still don't like pizza) and Mum tried in vain to get me to eat steak. I still avoid that, actually. I like the fatty, wobbly, purple parts much better! I was probably a dog in my former life.

With that said, I never met a Swedish kid who didn't like bloodpudding. Slather it in lingonberry jam and most kids will gobble it down.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Oh, I gotta try this! *puts heart on shopping list*

I still avoid that, actually. I like the fatty, wobbly, purple parts much better! I was probably a dog in my former life.

:eeek: Those are the bit that I cannot stomach - this is coming from the same person who carefully picks the fat off proscuitto and parma ham! I will take forever to cut any fatty bits off meat - probably why I liked heart so much - no fat or gristle to cut off. If you buy some heart do let us know what you think of it!

With that said, I never met a Swedish kid who didn't like bloodpudding. Slather it in lingonberry jam and most kids will gobble it down.

I take it that is like what we call black pudding? I like it but prefer white pudding. Can you tell me what lingonberry jam is - I've never heard of it!

 

[Blackjack]

OMG, I'm going to be sick...

 

[AdrianLvsRocky]

:eeek: Those are the bit that I cannot stomach - this is coming from the same person who carefully picks the fat off proscuitto and parma ham! I will take forever to cut any fatty bits off meat - probably why I liked heart so much - no fat or gristle to cut off. If you buy some heart do let us know what you think of it!



I take it that is like what we call black pudding? I like it but prefer white pudding. Can you tell me what lingonberry jam is - I've never heard of it!

I LOVE Black Pudding! A Full English breakfast isn't a Full English breakfast without black pudding!

PS. You can buy Lingonberry Jam in Ikea!

 

[Connery]

You know, I never could understand why it's more gross to eat lips than butt (ham, anyone?). I eat tounge, heart, liver, pigs trotters at christmas(though I never made that one), a Swedish dish called 'pölsa' similar to haggis that is tradtionally sometimes called 'mashed lungs' (says all you need to know, right?). I don't eat kidney because I don't like the flavour but ox cheek is a delicacy. I love blood pudding. I've had lamb's testicles and my Thai friend's aunt's curry with wobbly cubes of duck blood. When I was a poor student, I cooked chicken and lamb heart quite often (btw, Lizzie had it right, slice them, turn them in flour and fry in butter - whisk out the pan with red wine afterwards and you have a great sauce) It's all dead. Let us not fool ourselves. We're eating corpse.

To me it's about respect and ecological sustainability. I think it's madness to raise a pig and not eat everthing but the squeal or how the saying went. Meat should, in my opinion, be more expenisive which in turn would mean better treatment of animals. Have you seen the way they keep chickens? I'd rather eat lips from a happy cow than filet from one of those chickens, I'm telling you.

In the Era (at least here) meat was a delicacy. People ate every bit and piece of animals and made them go a long way. I think that is something we need to return to. Frown at sausages because of lips? Really. You'd kill an ox and eat the filet and do what with the rest?

I'm actually doing an experiment with only cooking the kinds of food they ate back then, in the same amounts too. I'll report back on how it goes. I'm surprised how well it echoes what people say when they tell us to eat 'greener' and more ecologically sustainable.

Same here growing up it was everything that was edible was eaten. Hearts , livers, stomachs etc. I still hold the same values, however, my choices are different as I am moving more fish than meat in my diet. I love Black Rice with Squid Ink (the sauteed onions are delicious as well.)

 

[HoosierDaddy]

OMG, I'm going to be sick...

I have a feeling that it's gonna get worse.
Yup it is. I'm getting real queasy....

 

[scotrace]

Political Stuff Removed. STOP. IT.

Carry on.

 

[Connery]

I have a feeling that it's gonna get worse.
Yup it is. I'm getting real queasy....

Those dishes bring such warm and loving memories of my grandmother whose values were instilled in me and I hold very high today. It is not the necessarily the ingredients that comprised the dish, it is the ingredients that made up the Love.

 

[Flicka]

I should have said black pudding - it's exactly the same.

OMG, I'm going to be sick...

You have no idea how macho that comment makes me feel!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Those dishes bring such warm and loving memories of my grandmother whose values were instilled in me and I hold very high today. It is not the necessarily the ingredients that comprised the dish, it is the ingredients that made up the Love.

:thumb::eusa_clap

 

[Edward]

They're small. You mash 'em up and spread the paste onto the food. Or, if the food itself is sticky and pasty (like rice balls or mashed potatoes), you can stick the insects right into it.

Aha! Makes sense to me we should eat more bugs. No shortage of them, they bred easy, must be incredibly cheap to "farm".... in a world of shortage (in some places at least), it makes perfect sense. To be fair, I'd want a really expert guide first - some of the stuff I've seen on sticks at street markets in Beijing....

On purpose?

Well, I'd swallowed this fly....

Actually, it was at a festival, it was seven i the morning, I hadn't slept the night before.... you know how it goes.

You know, I never could understand why it's more gross to eat lips than butt (ham, anyone?). I eat tounge, heart, liver, pigs trotters at christmas...

True story. Northern Ireland BT training school works canteen, sometime in the mid-late seventies.... Old school works canteen, the Meal of the Day set up. Not your modern, a la carte contractor places. Guy gets to the front of the queue, sees that the day's lunch is tongue salad, and - just in one of those lulls so everyone hears him - says "I couldn't at anything that came out of an animal's mouth, could you not do me an egg instead?" He never did get why everyone else found that so funny.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of the most disturbing experiences of my life came when I was working in a deli, and opened a five gallon pail of tongues for the first time. I'm not spleeny when it comes to food, but having food that "nyahhs" back at me is just a bit too much.

I also had a problem with pails of blood -- the deli was run by a couple of Czechoslovakian guys who had run from the tanks, and brought their Old Country recipes to the States with them, and apparently blood pudding is a very big thing with the mitteleuropean crowd. The sausage itself was fine, but seeing pail after pail of fresh blood being poured into the mixer put me off the idea of eating it.

As far as beef lips go, I love beef but I wouldn't kiss a cow.