It is depressing that supermarket meat shelves are becoming more and more about steak, chops and roasts, and less about the wobblier bits of the animals. Does this reflect the push by the shops, or the ignorance of the consumers? I think the latter, with a bit of prejudice and fear into the bargain. The supermarkets still have some offal, but how long will they carry on? In the USA you never seem to see it in supermarkets.
A foodie friend refuses to even try tripe, which if well prepared is unctuous and delicious. Others I know will not countenance liver. Which is good for those of us who enjoy it. Yesterday for 82p I bought enough lamb's liver for a substantial meal for two. Rolled in flour, paprika, salt and black pepper and fried till still pink in the middle it was quickly done and tasted great, even if I say so myself.
With other bits it is even stranger. The butchers I used to use near my previous place of work gave me pigs' trotters for free. They make fantastic jelly to seal a home-made pate, are a delicacy if cooked long with herbs and stock vegetables, and give some rib-sticking body to slow cooked beef stews. One of those butchers couldn't sell ox liver, so gave that away free too.
As the economy slowly sinks again, and food becomes ever dearer with growing world demand, the scandal over bio-fuels, and decreasing yields as the climate inexorably deteriorates, will people be brave enough to go back to the peasant way of eating everything possible? One part of me hopes so. The other is greedy to keep the good cheap stuff for myself.
1 comment:
May I champion the liver and pass on the tripe? I just don't like it. Kidneys, hmmm. Maybe. Sometimes. Trotters and all that? A resounding yes. Throwing out the offal is symptomatic of our divorce from proper cooking and indicative of our waste culture.
If you want blood... Or indeed offal, then it has to be the haggis. And no, please no, not in a plastic casing.
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