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Hurray for offal! Really, American culture already embraces some nasty bits, so long as they're hidden. As a friend of mine enjoys pointing out - we serve a bone marrow extraction sweetened and coloured as a dessert for small children (Jell-o). And pressed sandwich meats come from some of the less savory parts of meat. However, organ meat has largely been ignored.

Let's celebrate organ meat. Huzzah!

Ah, if I could only buy them here in Missouri....

How very offal.

(I'll be here all week, folks)

Would saying that the neck is my favorite part of the traditional Thanksgiving turkey be out of line here? The rest of my family thinks I'm odd for enjoying sucking every last bit of meat from the bones.

Yay for offal! Go Chichi!

Just curious -- why would lamb neckbones be considered offal? I always thought that referred to the internal non-muscle bits like liver, etc.

Dang! I just passed on a great deal on lamb's neck because I had no idea what to do with it!

Even though I do love our "hidden" offal food(hot dogs, anyone?), I am a fan of it outright. My grandfather used to make fried tripe and I was the only grandchild who not only tried it, but loved it.

I haven't had it for years, but still think about how good it was. Offal is the ish!

Great idea and nice looking recipe, but i'll have to agree with dbcurrie. Lamb's neck is not offal. It's muscle and bone. I've made tons of recipes with lamb's neck including a lot of couscous, and never have I or any of my guests thought of it as offal.

I grew up in a nice American home in the 1950's with liver, tongue and headcheese as part of my diet. I will try anything once and know that most sausages are not made of the upper cuts of meat. That said, I wish my own child had embraced my love of the 'nasty bits' of the animals that we eat. He refuses to even try liver, even when I make it with scads of bacon. Me, I love to eat kidneys, liver, heart, gizzards and necks, but draw the line at feet. Though I am sure I have eaten my share in Jello.

With the economy the way it is, I think that offal and lower cuts of meat will become more accessible and that is something I am looking forward to.

Thank goodness my parents exposed me to every bit of the animal and then some! I still remember being a kid and seeing strange veiny ovals in the halal butcher's case and asking "What's those?" In Middle Eastern slang, the butcher drily giggled, "Eggs."

Neckbones make a particularly flavorful stew with white beans and kale, but I would not call bones offal. I think that word is reserved for entrails and those bits that frighten more than they attract.

I am really excited to see this and can't wait for the rest of the series. I grew up in a typical American 80's suburb with wonderbread and crisco, but I was exposed to the glories of calve's liver at a very young age.
And whenever my mom would roast a chicken, she'd put the gizzards and all in a saucepan with some seasonings, make extra juices for basting. My father and I would literally FIGHT over who got the heart. Woe to the poor chicken who did not come with a heart in the bag o' guts! There was a "Survivor" epi recently where one of the contestants "won" a skewer of chicken hearts. Everyone was grossed out, but my first thought was "ooooh a whole skewer all to oneself? Yummy!"

@Christopher, thanks for the clarification. When I made lamb neckbones, I was thinking that they looked an awful lot like oxtails. I served 'em to my inlaws, and they never asked what cut of meat it was...and since I had cut it off the bone by then, it was just "stew meat."

I'd be surprised if many people could fine lamb neck in the store. Around here, there's an occasional leg and some chops, but that's about it. I suspect the rest ends up in the ground lamb and stew meat that also appears randomly.

The only reason I had any was that I buy a whole lamb every year, so I get all sorts of interesting cuts that never show up in stores.

@Chichi - Wow! Thank you for this recipe! Your mom's pork neck soup sounds great too. I can actually get pork neck bones at my regular grocery store here. Do you think you can post that recipe sometime?

I loves me my nasty bits!

Yum!
It's great to see someone tackle this intimidating subject; if done right, offal is often the most intensely flavored and delicious part of the animal. I look forward to following the nasty bits trail wherever it may lead!

@Chichi - Thanks for the link to the pork neck soup recipe (and your blog, which I look forward to looking through since I'm off for the summer!)!

i like using pork neckbones as a base when roasting a whole pork shoulder; the meat gets basted on the bottom while still allowing the fat to drip off the pork shoulder (bone-in, skin-on); and amazing afterwards. all those cheap cuts are great; looking forward to what are hopefully recipes as simple as the one you presented here.

Hi guys –

Thanks for the tips and stories. I will have to check out that Emporium because I’m constantly on the lookout for a fresh source for offal. Pickled tadpoles? Wow, I need the full anecdote on that.

As a kid going to school in the 60's, there wasn't a cafeteria serving hot lunches and we all brought lunches from home. Even after they started serving food in school, many of us continued to bring a sack lunch... remember those lunch boxes with a thermos in the lid and Mighty Mouse painted on the outside? Anyway, lunch was usually a P&J or balogna sandwich. Occasionally I would get a tongue sandwich. I'm sure it made me who I am today. I can tell you one thing.... It was incredibly difficult to find somebody to trade for the tongue sandwich. As an adult, I now travel all over the world and eat most everything. And there are definitely some interesting things, especially in Asia.

Being of Italian decent I have eaten a dish called Sufritta made with beef innards, heart, lungs and stomach, stewed in a hearty tomato sauce. MAGNIFICO !!!

My mother used to use pork neckbones to make the stock for her tomato soup. She never used pork for any other soup that I can recall. After the bones and meat came out, of course there was never anything you could use that meat for in a proper dinner, right? So we'd pull out the barbecue sauce and pick the bones clean and eat the meat with the sauce. No utensils required.

She also made a soup called czarnina, which translates as "black soup," It wasn't actually black, it was a dark, murky brown, and it was made from duck blood. I loved that stuff, too, but after a while it got impossible to find the main ingredient anywhere.

As for liver -- I loved liver and onions. Never really understood how anyone could not love liver and onions. First time I made them for DH, he was astounded that he could cut it with a fork. He'd never had liver cooked so that it was tender. Now it's one of his favorite meals.

And chicken livers. And chicken gizzards.

Whoops - uh, salt as needed, guys.

So....I've been waiting a few days now. No one's going to say anything about Marx????

Being Greek myself it's great to see a really good recipie for lamb neck bones. (luckily they are readily available to me in Pittsburgh). Although you may want to tweak a couple things. The authentic way is to salt and pepper the lamb necks, with sea salt only of course, brown them in the olive oil and then add the tyme and lemon juice, then add the water. Adding the tyme to the oil and lamb fat deepens the flavor. Also, you want to make sure to cover the pot while simmering otherwise the meat won't be as succulently tender. Plus we also throw in a small onion while simmering. Just suggestions...hope this helps. Keep up the great work!!!!