Offal

The organs and extremities of the animal — liver, kidney, heart, tongue, tripe, trotters, tail, brain, sweetbreads — once the first meat eaten after a slaughter and still, in most of the world’s cooking, the most flavourful and the cheapest.

Where it comes from

Until refrigeration, offal was eaten first because it spoiled first, and every food culture built dishes around it: the Roman and Florentine tripe, the French andouillette and foie de veau, the Scottish haggis, the Spanish callos, the Turkish kokoreç and işkembe soup, the Filipino sisig, the Mexican menudo and lengua tacos, the Nigerian and Ghanaian assorted-meat soups, the Peruvian anticuchos of beef heart, the Jewish chopped liver, the Chinese and Vietnamese pho with tendon and tripe. Northern Europe and North America largely turned away from it in the twentieth century; most of the world did not.

Offal divides by texture and treatment. The soft organs — liver, kidney, brain, sweetbreads — cook fast and are ruined by overcooking. The muscular and connective cuts — heart, tongue, tripe, trotters, oxtail, cheek — cook slowly for hours until their collagen melts, and give the richest broths and braises of all. Each has its own preparation: liver is soaked in milk, kidneys are cored and rinsed, tripe is bleached and boiled, tongue is simmered then peeled.

Varieties

• Liver (calf, lamb, chicken, pork) — Rich, soft, iron-tinged; cook fast and leave pink. Calf’s liver with onions or sage; chicken liver pâté; lamb’s liver in Middle Eastern grills.
• Kidney (lamb, veal, pork, ox) — Firm, faintly sharp; halve, core, cook briefly (lamb) or braise (ox). Devilled kidneys; steak and kidney pudding.
• Heart (beef, lamb, chicken) — Dense, lean muscle; grill in slices for Peruvian anticuchos or braise stuffed.
• Tongue (ox, lamb) — Simmer for hours, peel, slice; tender and rich. Tacos de lengua, pressed ox tongue, Jewish and Russian tongue with sauces.
• Tripe (stomach) — Boiled long into stews: trippa alla fiorentina, menudo, callos, işkembe çorbası, pho. Honeycomb tripe is the most prized.
• Trotters, oxtail, cheek, tail, sweetbreads — The gelatinous braising cuts and the delicate thymus: oxtail stew, pied de cochon, beef cheek, sweetbreads fried in butter.

In the kitchen

Soft offal: soak liver in milk for an hour to soften its edge, slice thick, flour lightly, and sear in hot butter for a minute or two a side — pink inside, or it turns grainy. Kidneys: halve, snip out the white core, rinse, and cook fast for lamb or braise slowly for ox. Sweetbreads: soak, blanch, peel, press, then fry crisp in butter. Brains: soak, poach, then fry in butter with capers.

Slow offal: tongue simmers two or three hours in aromatic water, then is peeled while warm; tripe is bought cleaned and bleached and still needs two or three hours; oxtail, cheek and trotters want three or four hours or a night in a low oven, and their braising liquid sets to jelly when cold, which is the whole reason to cook them. Acid and sharpness — vinegar, lemon, capers, mustard, pickles, chilli — belong with all of it.

Choosing and keeping

Offal must be very fresh: bright, glossy, firm and clean-smelling, with no sour or ammonia note. Buy from a butcher on the day, and cook liver and kidneys within a day, tripe and tongue within two. Frozen offal is acceptable for the slow cuts, less so for liver.

Tripe is sold cleaned and pre-boiled in most countries; ask. Tongue is sold fresh or brined. Oxtail should be cut across into rounds; cheeks trimmed of their outer membrane. Halal, Caribbean, Chinese and Latin American butchers are the reliable sources.

Offal is tagged on 181 dishes from 116 countries in the atlas. These notes are written from general knowledge and carry no per-fact citation — see About.