Ever tried it? If not, you’re not alone… let’s delve into this wonderful meat and why it’s fallen out of favour, a little history, nutrition, my personal experiences with tongue and finish off with a pressed tongue recipe & bonus recipe treats.

Popularity

The mention of eating tongue does encourage a raised eyebrow for most, which is a shame. It’s fairly cheap, highly nutritious and all part of a nose to tail – or tongue to tail – philosophy ensuring that nothing goes to waste.

However, ox tongue is more popular than most offal with pressed ox tongue gracing most supermarket delis.

I believe it’s the older generations with their unpolluted minds that are enjoying this meat. All the while, juveniles will scoff and tut at such a disgusting thing whilst munching away on a sausage, which – ironically – is likely filled with pigs tongues and other unpopular cuts… it’s all classed as pork, my friend. Ah… ignorance is bliss.

If it were down to taste though, this wouldn’t be the case. Pressed ox tongue is extremely yummy, more so than any other cold cured meat. If I were to try and explain the taste, it’s similar to corned beef but only better… much better.

How do you take yours?

Tongue is not only reserved for cold pressing though. It’s also great as an alternative for any meat in a roast dinner. With some roasted veggies and a splash of gravy, it’s a winner.

Or, as I’ve tried before, it can be simply cooked and eaten with some punchy Dijon and even taken one step further and fried in butter or tallow to take it to another level.

In fact, you can do this with pressed tongue. Cut it into 1cm cubes or slices and fry it until slightly crisp and your taste buds will thank you… It’s so good.

A Brief British History

As with most offal, tongue was very popular back in the day when food was more sparse and we’re forced to make the most out of what we could get.

Here in the UK in the 19th century, McCall’s supplied ox tongues in a can called ‘Patsandu Ox Tongues‘. The British Library’s description says…

“In the 1800s ox tongue was considered to be a great luxury, sometimes it was stewed which made it very soft, other times it was pickled and the added salt made it extremely hard. Cold pies and cooked meat were common items on the breakfast menu in large and wealthy Victorian households. At this time breakfast was a much larger meal, often with as many as 3 different courses. Oxtongue was a popular choice.”

So, what changed? I can only imagine it’s the introduction of ultra-processed foods and an overabundance that’s made us drift away from such foods.

Is it any good for us?

The short answer is yes, of course it is. It comes from an animal and our digestive systems are finely tuned to extract all the goodness meat has to offer. And, by chance (or not) meat offers everything we need in the perfect ratios for us.

As with other fatty cuts of meat, you’ll find a common theme when researching the nutritional value of that meat. Tongue is no exception.

Tongue is rich in vitamin B12, Choline, Niacin (B3), Riboflavin (B2), Iron and Zinc among others… amazing, many of the things required for optimal health. But, like some twisted joke played by mother nature, it contains a load of cholesterol. Damn you mother nature!

That said, it’s now well documented that the cholesterol in food has little to no impact on the cholesterol levels in our blood (1, 2, 3, 4). Yet despite this, the ‘cholesterol is bad’ narrative is still being pushed hard.

So, it would appear that foods that are high in cholesterol may not be so bad for us after all… Mother nature, all is forgiven.

Actually, the reason why cholesterol we eat doesn’t affect the amount in our blood is that if we don’t eat it, our body will make it. Think about that, our body makes cholesterol… why would our body make something that is so bad for us? That’s a whole other topic that I’ve touched on here, but I’ll leave it there for this post.

My Personal Experience

Eating the tongue of an ox – or any other creature – is not something I’d done until recently. In fact, it was only in May this year (2020) when I sampled ox tongue for the first time, I posted pictures on Instagram here.

Now, I admit that an ox tongue looks somewhat offensive and there were a number of my friends and family that were horrified when they saw the tongue. I don’t blame them, I mean, it looks like a big tongue and – I’m nervous to say – phallic… there’s no getting away from it.

But in the name of nose to tail eating, I powered on and cooked my first ox tongue. I kept it simple – as I like to do – and prepped my beloved pressure cooker, tossed the tongue in along with some veggies and cooked for an hour and a half.

After peeling the outer skin away revealing the meat – albeit still in the shape of a tongue – I sliced it up and cautiously tried my first bite.

My first thought was “hmm, this doesn’t taste horrible”. As my confidence grew and I become comfortable with the texture and taste, I realised that, actually, this was damn good and before I knew it, I couldn’t get enough.

That tongue didn’t last too long and I was keen to get another. So, a few tongues later and I was in love.

And, after trying some shop-bought pressed ox tongue – all salty and set in jelly – I decided I wanted to try cold pressing for myself.

If at first, you don’t succeed…

I’ll admit, my first attempt didn’t go well. I found this Delia recipe and in short, I didn’t brine the tongue and didn’t have the right equipment… it was a flop.

It tasted ok, but nothing like I was hoping for, but never fear, persevere…

Determined to figure this thing out, I jumped onto YouTube and searched up ‘pressed ox tongue’. Top of the list was this recipe video by Scott Rea. What a revelation, if only I had found this video first.

The first thing… get a proper press.

After a short hunt around and seeing many presses well over my budget, Amazon – as always – comes to the rescue and offered me this, and with a click, it was on its way.

Next, I remembered seeing salted pigs tongues by Kimber’s Farm Shop on one of my many meat browsing sessions. After adding a few other little delights to my basket I placed my order and arranged delivery for the end of the week ready for my next tongue adventure over the weekend.

My Tongue-tastic weekend

With my press and salted pigs tongues in hand, I was ready to do this properly, so here goes.

Ingredients

2 pigs tongues (I should’ve used 4) – you can substitute this for 2 brined ox tongues
1 pigs trotter (for added gelatine)
Some veggies if you wish, such as celery, carrots, onions or whatever you have in the fridge (I didn’t actually use any)
Some herbs if you wish (again, I didn’t use any)
Filtered or mineral water
A splash of Apple Cider Vinegar

Equipment

Pressure cooker, slow cooker or saucepan & hob
Meat press

Instructions

Ok, so wash the tongues and trotter and place in the cooking utensil of choice and pour in enough water to just cover the meat. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar. If you’re using veggies and herbs, add them now.

In the pressure cooker, cook for an hour and a half.

In the slow cooker, I’d suggest around 3-4 hours or in the saucepan bring to the boil cover and simmer for around 2-3 hours. In both cases cook until the tongue skin starts peeling off easily.

Remove the tongues and the trotter and simmer the broth reducing it by around half intensifying the gelatine and flavour.

Meanwhile, peel the skin from the tongues and cut them in half lengthways, from the tip to the root. Trim off any unwanted bits from the root of the tongue.

Now you’re ready to place the tongue in the press spreading it out evenly.

Finally, test the broth, it should be nice and salty, add salt if needed and pour over the tongues until just covered. Put the lid on and start pressing. Ensure there’s good pressure, there will be a puddle of broth left on top of the lid which is fine.

Now it’s a waiting game. I suggest leaving it in the fridge and forgetting about it for 24 hours.

Once ready, release the press and remove the lid. Run a knife around the edges and turn upside down on a plate and it should – perhaps with a bit of knocking – drop out.

And there you have it! If all’s gone well you should have beautiful dark red compressed meat with little pockets of jelly. A salty, delicious meaty delight.

Try to savour and not gobble as is so easily done along with some Dijon mustard perhaps. Maybe with some other cold meats and cheese selection or however you wish. On its own is perfectly acceptable.

I can recommend frying some in a little butter over a medium heat adding an outer crisp bringing another textural pleasure into play.

Bonus Brawn

Now, have you ever tried brawn? I’ve written about this here. But, you have everything you need to make a small portion of brawn which will complement your tongue.

Take the trotter and separate the soft meat and flesh from the hard bones and cartilage and break into smallish pieces – there are no rules here.

Line out a Tupperware box with clingfilm and throw all the meat in. You should have plenty of broth leftover from the tongues, use this and cover the meat. Put the lid on – and again – leave in the fridge for 24 hours.

The following day will reveal another pork-based delight. Soft meat suspended in salty jelly… Just beautiful.

The recipe that keeps on giving…

But, why stop there? Now you should have some broth leftover and a load of bones from the trotter.

This is a perfect opportunity to throw it all back into the pressure cooker or whatever you’re cooking with along with any other bones you have.

I save all bones I use in cooking and I had some bone remains from marrowbone boats that I purchased from Godfreys… true nose to tail where nothing goes to waste. I also had a veal foot from Kimbers’ Farm Shop, packed with loads of gelatine.

Top up with water, add a splash of apple cider vinegar and cook on. In the pressure cooker cook for at least 4 hours and in the slow cooker or saucepan, cook for at least 12 hours. I’ve written more about this here.

Recap

So, eating tongue was the norm many years ago. But, true to offal form, it now turns snouts upwards and a confession of consuming such a meat may trigger disgusted outbursts. In such a situation, rest easy in the knowledge that it is they that are missing out.

It can be used an various different ways from a tantalising change to your roast dinner to a moreish cold meat.

In the 19th century, tongue was sold in a can… I’m a little jealous.

Tongue would be perfectly nutritious if it wasn’t for that evil artery-clogging cholesterol (sense the sarcasm?).

I confess to cutting culinary corners and failing. But, it’s all good… I gave myself a talking to turned out some scrumptious pressed pigs tongue and tell you exactly how to replicate it.

Added bonus, I suggest making some brawn and bone broth leaving nothing to waste.

Inspiration

I hope this post encourages you to try pressing your own pig or ox tongue. It may not come out right first time, but persevere, because when it does… it’s a sweet feeling and adds to the enjoyment of eating, knowing you’ve produced this wonderous thing.

I’m not a good cook, I watch in wonder at chefs as they turn out amazing grub effortlessly only to feel depressed when my attempt fails dismally. In the past, I would shrug and admit defeat.

I’ve since learnt that failing once means I’m one step closer to succeeding. Proper research, recording actions, not cutting corners and repeated trials eventually lead to success. And, when I get that success, it makes it so worth the effort.

It would be great to hear about your failures and successes. Either leave a comment below, email me jim.offalygood@gmail.com or tag me on Instagram @offaly.good.

Good luck!

Have a nutritious day!

There you have it! Just a reminder that I’m no doctor, dietitian or any other profession for that matter. I’m simply a bearer of information for you to do what you want with; question it, research it, erase it from your mind, you are in charge of you.

The post Tasty Tongue – Are You Missing Out? appeared first on Offaly Good.

The creamy, buttery delight that is bone marrow is underappreciated in our modern world, although this was not always the case. In fact, it’s believed that bone marrow would’ve been one of the first animal foods we would’ve eaten around 2 million years ago, before our hunting days when we were mere scavengers.

At that point, our Homo habilis ancestors were no more than 4ft tall and had much smaller brains than we do now. They wouldn’t have had the intellect nor strength to hunt big animals, so they had to settle for the scraps making use of tools to break open bones and skulls to get to the calorie-dense good stuff inside.

This may be the key that lead to our little ancestors developing larger brains and bigger and stronger bodies until we could hunt for our food and make use of the whole beast.

Despite this, bone marrow these days are generally left to the dogs which – in my opinion – is a great shame. That said, there’s one advantage for you and me… Butchers are almost giving marrow filled bones away.

What is Bone Marrow?

Many bones have a hollow centre that’s filled with a spongy tissue called bone marrow.

There are 2 types of bone marrow:

• Red (myeloid tissue) – the blood cell producing factory. It contains stem cells that make red and white blood cells. Over 200 billion new blood cells are produced in bone marrow – every day!
• Yellow (fatty tissue) – which helps to store fat.

This is a very basic summary but if you’re interested in a more detailed explanation, try here.

The point is that our bone marrow plays a vital role, and, when its function is compromised – as we see in people with blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma or with sickle cells anaemia – our lives are threatened and marrow transplants may be our only option.

Nutritional Data

It seems that bone marrow is so underappreciated that there’s little nutritional information available. Usually, a quick DuckDuckGo search on any food type reveals a whole world nutritional data, but not so with bone marrow.

So, after a little delving, I found this study that looked at nutrient levels in reindeer. It found that the bone marrow was rich in vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12, and vitamin E, as well as being an incredibly high source of calcium.

There’s talk of other nutrients that are contained in bone marrow, such as glycine, glucosamine and chondroitin, but it’s all very woolly. There clearly needs more research is required to know for sure.

It’s certainly a very fatty animal part, which – in my opinion – shouldn’t scare you off. We’ve been eating animal fats for many, many years and our bodies are finely tuned utilise this energy source… Plus, animal fat tastes amazing.

My hunch is that – as with eating other parts of the beast – there are many health-promoting nutrients and will complement a nose-to-tail way of eating.

The Health Benefits of Eating Bone Marrow

I’ve mentioned before that eating a particular part of an animal will aid the health of the part in your own body, and this article proves this is the case.

A Swedish oncologist – Dr Brohult – tried giving calves’ marrow to children that had radiation to treat their leukaemia in an attempt to kick start their bone marrow into producing white blood cells with some promising success.

As it turns out – after further investigation – this is due to something called alkylglycerols (AKGs) that can be found in organs responsible for producing blood cells such as bone marrow and the spleen.

History, Cuisines and Cultures

Apart from being one of the first parts of the animal that our ancestors would’ve consumed in their scavenger days, bone marrow has featured heavily in many cultures and historical periods.

There are recipes dating back to medieval times documenting the use of bone marrow in ‘sluberkens‘ – small pasties stuffed with marrow and sugar, and stuffed quinces – a type of pear that’s cored then stuffed with marrow and currents then stewed.

Of course, the Italians are not afraid of parts of the animal that have fallen out of favour in modernized parts of the world. A traditional Milanese dish called Ossobucco – meaning ‘bone with the hole’ – makes use of veal shank where the meat on the bone is cut into thick slices and slow-cooked. During the cooking, the marrow melts into the tomato-based sauce adding to the sumptuousness.

The French – well known for their culinary expertise – can be caught using bone marrow for many dishes from onion soup with roasted marrow bones, to roast marrow bone and crispy ox tongue, which you’ll find in Michel Roux Jr’s recipe book ‘Les Abats’.

Allegedly – in Scandinavian countries – parents will be found serving up bone marrow soup to their kids to boost their health and strength.

Pop over to the other side of the pond to Mexico and you may find bone marrow gracing your plate in the form of ‘bone marrow tacos‘. Served roasted in the bone ready to be scooped out and used as a taco filling. The Mexicans have long been gobbling this stuff up for its added taste and texture.

And. if you seek out bone marrow recipes, you’ll be sure to stumble across a dish called ‘Pho’… a Vietnamese broth of beef, noodles and bone marrow. Although, this article has cast doubt in my mind as to how traditional this combo is, suggesting bone marrow doesn’t belong in this dish. That said, it wouldn’t stop me from giving it a try if it was on the menu.

Keeping it Simple

Me, I like to keep things simple. I either get some bones from my butcher, Deersbrook Farm. Or, I buy them from Waitrose through Ocado. Although, recently Ocado have dumped Waitrose for M&S who don’t sell prepared marrow bones… hey ho!.

Anyway, I roast the bones in the oven at 220⁰C (430⁰F) for around 15 minutes until it’s just crispy on the surface. Season with salt, scoop out with a teaspoon and slurp it up… yummy!

You’ll quickly understand why it’s nicknamed ‘meat butter’… it’s so moreish.

To be honest, I find it hard to understand why marrow is scoffed at these days when something can taste this good…

…I get it with some offal, we’re now so far removed from eating the likes of liver, kidney or heart not to mention such things as tongue and testicles, but bones are not that out of the ordinary.

So if you’re a little nervous about trying bone marrow… Don’t be. Suck it up and give it a try… You won’t regret it, trust me.

A little tip… there’ll be a good amount of fat left in the baking dish – do not chuck it! It’s perfect for roasting or frying your next meal.

Have a nutritious day!

There you have it! Just a reminder that I’m no doctor, dietitian or any other profession for that matter. I’m simply a bearer of information for you to do what you want with; question it, research it, erase it from your mind, you are in charge of you.

The post Bone Marrow – The Buttery Delight appeared first on Offaly Good.

If liver is the king of Mother Nature’s Superfood, then kidney is its Queen… Packed full of goodness, this underappreciated meat should be on your plate if you care about optimal health.

Our Body’s Filter

Our kidneys are a wondrous feat of mechanics, performing important bodily duties in a magical display, centre stage in our renal system. Tirelessly filtering our blood, processing fluids, regulating salts and minerals. So important is this organ that it has the capabilities to demand more from our heart, producing hormones to signal when blood supply is low to increase blood pressure.

If you’re anything like me, then our poor kidneys are tested from time to time… or in my case a constant onslaught from the age of 14 to around my mid-twenties. Shoving all sorts of naughty things down my throat in search of a good time.

Being our body’s filter system for waste materials from food, medication and – yes – toxic substances it gets a battering at times whether that be from recreational drugs, alcohol, meds, or pollutants in the air and food. This may well explain the excessive rate of Chronic Kidney Disease in our world today.

Perhaps we should give a little more thought to our poor kidneys, for if they were to stop working properly, it can make life somewhat less enjoyable in our later years, with such ailments as tiredness, more trips to the loo, insomnia, itchy skin, muscle cramps, headaches and for us men… erectile dysfunction. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

Dear kidneys

I’m so sorry for the torture I’ve put you through, please forgive me. I promise I’ll drink plenty of filtered water and only drink alcohol on special occasions from now on.

With Love

Jim x

Kidney – The Nutritional Powerhouse

Assuming you haven’t beaten up your kidneys to the later stages of CKD, then a little TLC should save you from the torture. Dr Ken Barry gives some quick handy tips here.

I heard somewhere that if you have an issue with some body part, then eating that body part from an animal will help. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is… bring on the kidney.

Eating kidney is not as popular as it once was, only really making an appearance in steak & kidney pies. This is such a shame as it’s highly nutritious providing many nutrients for optimal health. Just take a look below…

As you can see, kidney is a powerhouse when it comes to vitamin B12, Riboflavin, Thiamine, Selenium and iron.

• Vitamin B12 – improves energy, mood, blood cell formation among many other things.
• Riboflavin (B2) – aids energy production in your cells through methylation.
• Thiamine (B1) – the first B vitamin to be discovered, needed to make ATP, our cells source of energy.
• Selenium – a powerful antioxidant. Aids your immune system and thyroid.
• Iron – responsible for transferring oxygen from the lungs to the tissues.

Plus, there’s another vitamin that gets missed from most nutrition tables… Vitamin K2. You’ll get around 300µg per 100g of kidney. This vitamin ensures calcium is deposited where it should be and not where it shouldn’t… such as in your arteries.

These are some very good reasons to get kidney into your diet. The bonus is that your body is designed to extract all this goodness from animal foods. Mother Nature had been working her magic for millions of years finely tuning our digestive system for this very reason. Your body needs this stuff, it craves it. Give it what it wants on a regular basis and you’ll notice the difference.

How to Get Kidney In Your Belly

I hope you’re convinced on the health benefits of kidney by now and are eager to get it into your belly.

Fortunately, a quick DuckDuckGo search will lead you to many kidney recipes suitable for every skill level of cookery. I’m no chef, so I’ll give you some basics.

Kidneys come from the usual suspects, ox (cow), veal (young cow), lamb and pig. I’ve found that each has to be treated differently.

• Ox kidney – perfect for slow cooking. I like to add mine to a stew but you can stick with the traditional steak & kidney pie.
• Veal kidney – More delicate than ox kidney, usually found on high-end restaurant menus. Sauté on a med-high heat browning just the outside, leaving the inside pink.
• Lamb kidney – these are delicate little organs, almost cute. Similar to veal, sauté on a med-high heat browning just the outside, leaving the inside pink. These are my favourite, a little seasoning and I’m happy but many add spices for devilled kidneys.
• Pig kidney – versatile, this can be cooked any way you desire. It packs a more porky flavour than its cousins.

A word of warning in the prep of kidneys, a trap I fell into… There’s gristle that needs to be removed, especially when sautéing. You’ll need to cut the kidney in half longways, then carefully cut out the hard parts.

If slow cooking, the gristle will breakdown so not as important.

It’s What We’re Designed to Eat

Kidneys are an organ meat that would’ve been eaten by our ancestors and prized alongside liver and other organ meats that have fallen out of popularity in our modern world.

There’s a very good reason these organs were prized… because they knew how nutritious they are and how important they are in their pursuit of health and survival.

Fortunately, our ancestors didn’t have the confusing food distractions we live with now in our highly processed world. They had to hunt and/or gather, no Co-op just down the road as we have now.

When thought about in this way, I believe it’s easy to understand what we should be eating for optimal health despite the confusing information in the world. The only truth you need is a little common sense… let’s face it, it’s what we’re designed to eat. I talk more about this here.

Have a nutritious day!

There you have it! Just a reminder that I’m no doctor, dietitian or any other profession for that matter. I’m simply a bearer of information for you to do what you want with; question it, research it, erase it from your mind, you are in charge of you.

The post The Incredible Health Benefits of Eating Kidney appeared first on Offaly Good.

Many will scoff at the thought of eating heart… a tradition of our ancestors that’s long been forgotten. But this nutritious and tasty meat deserves better.

In this post, discover nutritional benefits and simple ways of getting heart into your diet.

Our heart is a pump that slogs away, never resting for a moment from the first beat – 22 days after conception – until the grim reaper bears his scythe.

Pumping blood first to the lungs to be oxygenated then out to our peripheries… if it were to halt for any amount of time, we would suffer potentially life-threatening consequences.

As a result of this relentless work, the heart is the leanest muscle meat that we can eat, leaner than any fillet steak you’ll pay top dollar for, yet heart is one of the cheapest meats you’ll find.

This leanness limits the cooking options somewhat, but this shouldn’t scare you off in any way. It’s either low and slow or hot and fast… anything in between is just rubber.

Nutritional Benefits of Heart

Being a lean meat, it offers a generous portion of protein, but there’s far more that this meat can offer.

It’s an incredibly rich source of vitamin B12 with a 100g portion giving us nearly 400% of our RDA.

Vitamin B12 is the controversial vitamin in the vegan argument being that it’s not available in any amount from plant food. To maintain robust health whilst eating a vegan diet, B12 has to be supplemented or obtained from fortified foods.

B12 plays many important roles in the body which I won’t go into here, but our bodies store this vitamin in our liver and will hold enough reserves to keep us going for up to 5 years.

So, a new vegan – with no B12 intake – may not see any negative effects for some years, but it’ll eventually catch up with them. Fortunately, with plenty of fortified food options, it shouldn’t be a problem in getting plenty of B12 on a vegan diet.

For us meat-eaters, B12 is abundant in most meats and dairy.

Other minerals found in abundance in heart are iron, riboflavin, selenium, choline and niacin, all of which serve important roles for maintaining good health.

It’s clear that getting some heart into our diets will give our bodies a massive nutrient boost delivered in a bio-available package that our body is perfectly engineered to absorb.

Edible hearts come from the usual animals such as cow/ox, pig, lamb, chicken and duck.

The Heart of an Ox

The ox heart is a sight to be seen, the size and weight of a bowling ball with dark red dense meat and hard white marbled fat on the surface.

If the heart in its whole form puts you off, then ask your butcher to cut it into slices, say, 2cm thick.

Trim the outer fat and sear it in a hot pan of butter or lard or any other animal fat you have lying about.

On a medium to high heat, brown for a couple of minutes on each side leaving the middle red. Devour on its own or with a béarnaise sauce, or mustard or perhaps a homemade horseradish sauce.

Don’t expect a ribeye texture here, the fibres of heart are dense and free of fat so it has more bite than a traditional steak, but has a beefy flavour none the less.

The texture may take some getting used to as it’s not like any other food we eat, but give it a chance, you’ll soon find you’re craving your next heart steak.

When cooking low and slow, due to the dense nature of heart, it doesn’t break down like other muscle meat with long cooking.

For a simple option, I add chunks into my stews along with muscle meat and kidney.

I prepare my stews in a pressure cooker, a magical cooking utensil saving many hours of cooking. Throw everything in – with either water or bone broth – and you’ll have a gorgeous stew within a couple of hours.

In the oven, braise for around 4 hours at 160 degrees C until the muscle meat falls apart easily with a fork.

Heart will come out still firm to the bite but yummy and provides a contrast of textures between the melting muscle and soft spongy kidney.

Lambs and Pigs Hearts

I’ll be honest and confess that I’ve only tried lambs hearts in one form. Stuffed with lambs mince, wrapped in streaky bacon and baked for a couple of hours or so in some red wine that can be made into a sauce at the end.

My recipe was loosely based on this. I highly recommend this rich and sumptuous dish. A textural delight of crispy bacon, firm but not tough heart flesh and soft mince complemented with a velvety sauce.

As with ox heart, lambs hearts can be flash-fried too. Either cut into small pieces or butterfly and brown on the outside leaving the middle pink.

I’ve yet to try pigs hearts although – at time of writing – I have 3 sitting in the freezer ready for my next hearty adventure. They’re around the same size as lambs hearts – perhaps slightly bigger – and can be treated in the same way. I will likely try something similar to this recipe in the near future.

Chicken and Ducks Hearts

The dainty chicken and duck hearts are inferior when it comes to size but not when we’re talking taste…

…A perfect bite-sized treat. Slice in half and sauté in some butter – or any other animal fat you have – for a couple of minutes and enjoy them on their own, or – for a twist – wrap them in bacon… a perfect appetizer.

Other Options

There’s always the option of eating heart raw, there are some that take their heart this way. If you’ve got the stomach for it, give it a go.

I will say that if you are tempted, I would suggest making sure you know exactly where your meat’s come from and is of high quality.

I highly recommend sourcing your meat from a Pasture For Life certified butcher.

Also, personally, I would steer clear of raw poultry.

For those of us who prefer their food cooked, there are many more recipes to explore. Try searching on Google or – as in my case – DuckDuckGo.

Summary

The heart is another highly nutritious and neglected meat. It’s a travesty that the hardest working organ in the body gets wasted and disregarded.

The heart should be celebrated… for its constant beating has provided life… so its rested state should go on to provide us with a tasty, nutritious and hearty meal…

…It’s the least it deserves.

If you want to find out more about the nutritional power of organ meats, then take a squint at my post about the mighty liver here.

Have a nutritious day!

There you have it! Just a reminder that I’m no doctor, dietitian or any other profession for that matter. I’m simply a bearer of information for you to do what you want with; question it, research it, erase it from your mind, you are in charge of you.

The post Don’t Be Heartless – Why You Should Be Eating Heart appeared first on Offaly Good.