Offal


Offal, also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the internal organs of a butchered animal. Offal may also refer to the by-products of milled grains, such as corn or wheat.
Some cultures strongly consider offal consumption to be taboo, while others use it as part of their everyday food, such as lunch meats, or, in many instances, as delicacies. Certain offal dishes—including foie gras and pâté—are often regarded as gourmet food in the culinary arts. Others remain part of traditional regional cuisine and are consumed especially during holidays; some examples are sweetbread, Jewish chopped liver, Scottish haggis, U.S. chitterlings, and Mexican menudo. Intestines are traditionally used as casing for sausages.
Depending on the context, offal may refer only to those parts of an animal carcass discarded after butchering or skinning. Offal not used directly for human or animal consumption is often processed in a rendering plant, producing material that is used for fertilizer or fuel; in some cases, it may be added to commercially produced pet food. In earlier times, mobs sometimes threw offal and other rubbish at condemned criminals as a show of public disapproval.

Etymology and terminology

The word shares its etymology with several Germanic words: West Frisian ôffal, German Abfall, afval in Dutch and Afrikaans, avfall in Norwegian and Swedish, and affald in Danish. These Germanic words all mean "garbage/rubbish" or "waste" or—literally—"off-fall", referring to that which has fallen off during butchering. However, these words are not often used to refer to food except for Afrikaans in the agglutination afvalvleis, which does indeed mean offal. For instance, the German word for offal is Innereien meaning innards and the Swedish word is inälvsmat literally meaning "inside-food". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word entered Middle English from Middle Dutch in the form afval, derived from af and vallen.
It is not related to the English word awful, which originally meant "inspiring awe," then shifted meaning to "terrifying" and then to "very bad."
Organ meat is typically referred to with established terms used for other edible parts of the animal, such that the heart of a cow would be known as beef heart, while that of a pig would be known as pork heart.

Types

In some parts of Europe, scrotum, brain, chitterlings, trotters, heart, head, kidney, liver, spleen, "lights", sweetbreads, fries, tongue, snout, tripe and maws from various mammals are common menu items.

Great Britain

In medieval times, "humble pie" made from animal innards was a peasant food and is the source of the commonly used idiom "eating humble pie", although it has lost its original meaning as meat pies made from offal are no longer referred to by this name. The traditional Scottish haggis consists of a sheep's stomach stuffed with a boiled mix of liver, heart, lungs, rolled oats, and other ingredients. In the English Midlands and South Wales, faggots are made from ground or minced pig offal, bread, herbs, and onion wrapped in pig's caul fat.
Only two offal-based dishes are still routinely served nationwide at home and in restaurants and are available as pre-cooked package meals in supermarket chains: steak and kidney pie, still widely known and enjoyed in Britain, and liver and onions served in a rich sauce.
Brawn is the collection of meat and tissue found on an animal's skull that is cooked, chilled and set in gelatin. Another British food is black pudding, consisting of congealed pig's blood with oatmeal made into sausage-like links with pig intestine as a casing, then boiled and usually fried on preparation.
"Luncheon tongue" refers to reformed pork tongue pieces. "Ox tongue" made from the pressed complete tongue, is more expensive. Both kinds of tongue are found in tinned form and in slices in supermarkets and local butchers. Home cooking and pressing of tongue have become less common over the last fifty years.
Bleached tripe was a popular dish in Northern England, with many specialist tripe shops in industrial areas. Today in South Lancashire, certain markets may still sell tripe, but all the specialist tripe shops have now closed.
"Elder" is the name given to cooked cow's udder—another Lancashire offal dish rarely seen today. Offal connoisseurs such as Ben Greenwood OBE have frequently campaigned to bring Elder back on the menu of restaurants across Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Ireland

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the poor in Ireland ate offal as they could not afford the more prized cuts; black pudding, pig's feet, lamb liver, lamb and veal kidney and sweetbreads were all popular. In the late 18th century, Dublin saw rioting when local butchers began to export offcuts of beef, instead of selling them locally.
A famous fictional consumer of offal is Leopold Bloom of James Joyce's novel Ulysses :
Ireland exports large amounts of offal, with Irish beef tongue being popular in Japan.
Offal consumption has risen in recent years as there is growing awareness of the nutritional benefits, including from fitness influencers.

Nordic countries

Norway

In Norway the smalahove is a traditional dish, usually eaten around and before Christmas time, made from a sheep's head. The skin and fleece of the head is torched, the brain is removed, and the head is salted, sometimes smoked, and dried. The head is boiled for about three hours and served with mashed rutabaga/swede and potatoes. The ear and eye are normally eaten first, as they are the fattiest area and must be eaten warm. The head is often eaten from the front to the back, working around the bones of the skull. Smalahove is considered by some to be unappealing or even repulsive. It is mostly enjoyed by enthusiasts and is often served to tourists and more adventurous visitors.
Other Norwegian specialities include smalaføtter, a traditional dish similar to smalahove, but instead of a sheep's head, it is made of lamb's feet. Syltelabb is a boiled, salt-cured pig's trotter, known as a Christmas delicacy for enthusiasts. Syltelabb is usually sold cooked and salted.
Liver pâté and patéd lung are common dishes, as are head cheese and blood pudding. Fish roe and liver are also central to several Norwegian dishes, such as mølje.

Denmark

In Denmark, a version of liver pâté known as leverpostej and used as a spread is popular. The most common main ingredients of leverpostej are pork liver, lard, and anchovies, but numerous alternative recipes exist. The 5.5 million Danes consume roughly 14,000 tons of leverpostej per year, the most popular commercial brand being Stryhn's. Versions of brawn and blood sausage are eaten mainly during wintertime, including as part of the traditional Danish Christmas lunch or julefrokost.
Heart is commonly eaten, either calf, cow, or pork. Grydestegte hjerter is a Sunday dish of stuffed pork heart, served with carrots, Brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes.

Iceland

has several traditional dishes using offal. The Icelandic slátur consists of blóðmör and lifrarpylsa, typically boiled and served with mashed potatoes. Blóðmör is a sausage made of lamb's blood, suet and rye, while lifrarpylsa is made of lamb's liver, suet and rye. Similar to the Norwegian smalahove, the Icelandic svið is the head of a sheep with the wool singed off, boiled and typically served with mashed potatoes and mashed rutabaga.

Sweden

Sweden has a version of the British black pudding called blodpudding. The Swedish analogue of Scottish haggis is called pölsa or lungmos. The Swedish pölsa is made of offal like liver or heart, onions, rolled barley and spices, and is served with boiled potatoes, fried eggs, and sliced beetroot. Blodpudding is mostly served sliced and fried with lingonberry preserve, grated carrot or cabbage, and fried bacon. Other popular offal dishes are levergryta and leverpastej.

Finland

also has its own version of black pudding, mustamakkara. There is also liver sausage, usually eaten as a spread on bread, similar to the Danish leverpostej. Liver is also eaten in various other forms including fried slices and minced liver patties. Liver casserole, traditionally made with minced liver, rice, butter, onions, egg, syrup, and usually, raisins used to be mainly a Christmas dish, but is now available and eaten all year round. Many traditional and modern game recipes use offal. One of the most popular offal dishes is verilettu which translates to blood pancake, a pan-fried thin bread-like snack traditionally enjoyed with lingonberry jam. Verilettu is common in Sweden and Norway, going by the name Blodplättar.

Western Europe

In France, the city of Lyon is well known for its offal: andouillette, tablier de sapeur, foie de veau, rognons à la crème, and tripes, among others.
In Marseille, lamb's trotters and a package of lamb tripe are a traditional food under the name "pieds et paquets".
Especially in southern Germany, some offal varieties are served in regional cuisine. The Bavarian expression Kronfleischküche includes skirt steak and offal as well, e.g., ', a sausage containing small pieces of spleen, and even dishes based on udder. Swabia is famous for Saure Kutteln—sour tripes served steaming hot with fried potatoes. Herzgulasch is a type of goulash using heart. Liver is part of various recipes, such as some sorts of Knödel and Spätzle, and in Liverwurst. As a main dish, together with cooked sliced apple and onion rings, liver is a famous recipe from the German capital. Helmut Kohl's preference for Saumagen was a challenge to various political visitors during his terms as German Chancellor. ' are small dumplings made with bone marrow; they are served as part of Hochzeitssuppe, a soup served at marriages in some German regions. In Bavaria, lung stew is served with Knödel, dumplings. Blood tongue, or Zungenwurst, is a variety of German head cheese with blood. It is a large head cheese made with pig's blood, suet, bread crumbs, and oatmeal with chunks of pickled beef tongue added. It has a slight resemblance to blood sausage. It is commonly sliced and browned in butter or bacon fat prior to consumption. It is sold in markets pre-cooked, and its appearance is maroon to black in color.
In Austrian, particularly Viennese cuisine, the Beuschel is a traditional offal dish. It is a sort of ragout containing veal lungs and heart. It is usually served in a sour cream sauce and with bread dumplings. A type of black pudding by the name of Blunzn or Blutwurst is also common. In traditional Viennese cuisine, many types of offal including calf's liver, sweetbread, or calf's brain with egg have played an important role, but their popularity has strongly dwindled in recent times.
In Belgium several classic dishes include organ meat. Beef or veal tongue in tomato-Madeira sauce with mushrooms and kidneys in mustard cream sauce are probably the most famous ones. The famous "stoofvlees" or carbonade flamande, a beef stew with onions and brown beer, used to contain pieces of liver or kidney, to reduce the costs. Pork tongues are also eaten cold with bread and a vinaigrette with raw onions or mustard.