When you think of eating meat, you think of things like roasts, steaks, and ground meat. But if you think of nose to tail eating, there are lots of other edible parts – organ meat, bones, feet, . I have said for a long time if we had the right people/cultures in the same room, nothing from an animal would be wasted. Yes, someone probably eats…(that).
If you think of organ meat, these items come to mind (clockwise, L to R) – (beef) tongue, (beef) kidney, (lamb) heart, (chicken) hearts, (chicken) livers, (pork) liver. Tongue is the sweetest of the bunch, next heart, then liver, and finally kidneys.
Size of the organ meat will vary with the size of the animal from beef, to pork, to lamb, down to chicken. So you get many chicken livers in 1 lb but only part of beef, pork or lamb liver in 1 lb. The rest of the organs are packaged individually except for pork heart and tongue which are packaged together.
Here is a post I wrote a few years ago for ways to use organ meat. Also check out the comments. We enjoy these organ meats and try to have one of them several times a month.
Other odd meat parts would include feet and legs and tails. (Clockwise, L to R) We have oxtails, chicken feet, and pig feet. Going up the leg we get (beef) meaty shank soupbones and (pork) ham hocks. (Not pictured) we also get pork neck bones and bags of (pork, beef, or lamb) bones. (We leave chicken necks attached to our chickens.) All these items make good broth and add nice flavor to dishes.
The USDA limits what things can come back from the butcher, so we get nothing from the intestinal tract – no esophagus, stomach, small or large intestines. However, there are cultures that know how to clean these things and use them either as a casing or as part of the meal. While I can’t supply these things, it doesn’t mean that with the right preparation they can’t be used.
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