This is probably one of my favorite noodles dishes of all time, especially in the meatless category. I made these noodles a few weekends ago for friends, letting them mix in their own helpings of nuts and pickles, as well as slivers of green scallions. Silence, utter silence, at the table. One friend pronounced Sichuanese food as being very close to God. More
Tongue is a stress-free option for the grill. Because it's so fatty, you don't have to worry about it getting tough or dry. Option two: grilled pig's tails. The only difference here is you want to use a more indirect flame so you don't get too many flare-ups when the pork fat drips down into the grill. More
Each morsel is tender, crispy, spicy, full of flavor. It tastes like juicy meat jerky—a contradiction, you might think, until you experience it first-hand. More
This tongue is tender, fatty, and flavorful and the contrast between the surface and the interior is so satisfying. The secret ingredient: lots and lots of oil. More
Steaming meat? Try it if you haven't. Steamed ribs are not fall-apart tender like braised or smoked ribs. The flesh has a bit of a bounce to it; not tough, just harder than stewed preparations. But the meat is juicy and fatty, and you get the pleasure of eating the cartilage and sinews—everything except the bones—all in one bite-sized morsel. More
The ham hock is the lower segment of the pig, corresponding to the ankle or calf region. A hock is not fatty but can be made tender from all the collagen that breaks down during cooking. Best of all, the whole thing is covered in skin, and as I always say, the more skin, the better. More
This is ba bao fan, or "Eight Treasure Rice," one of my favorite uses for glutinous rice. For breakfast, I mix sticky rice with a small amount of lard, add in chopped walnuts and currants, and bury a few generous spoonfuls of red bean paste in the center. When it's done, the rice gets drizzled with honey. More
The chopped liver at Russ and Daughter's is sweeter than most. It gets its sweetness from the onions. Of course all recipes for chopped liver call for sautéed onions to be mixed in with the liver purée, but what distinguishes the onions used at Russ and Daughters is just how very sweet they taste. These are onions that get cooked for a long time, I suspect. More
My feeling about hot and sour soup is that—and bear with me here—it should not be hot and it should most definitely not be sour. Most Chinese recipes for the soup concur, though every once in a while I'll duck into a shop in Chinatown serving up a bowl of the soup that lives up to its name. I want to flag down the manager and ask, Didn't you get the memo about hot and sour soup?, but of course I don't. More
Just about any stewing or braising preparation would suit pork cheeks. A pork cheek is not an irregularly shaped cut like trotter or a hock, nor does it have too much fat to be rendered or dealt with in some way, such as pork belly. A pork cheek is just a perfect round of flesh and collagen, and so conveniently sized that you don't even have to cut it up before adding it to the pot. More
At home, you have the freedom to use pork or lamb's tongue in lieu of the more classic beef or veal tongue. You cut up the tongue, put down a pat of oil or lard in your pan, and stand over the skillet until the tongue is ready to be moved onto the tortilla, and not one second before. Simple as that. More
How much liver can you fit into a meatball? No, this is not the set-up for a bad joke, but a very serious inquiry—that is, if you happen to love liver and meatballs. More
I'd like to put forth the claim that Trippa alla Romana is really an excuse to enjoy a lot of tomato sauce. We talk about the ability of pasta to cling to a sauce, but pasta pales in comparison to tripe's sponge-like powers. More
I like tripe in my chili. I just do. And though this column is all about demystifying and celebrating offal, I feel I need not explain my preference for tripe in my chili. Not to chili purists, not to anyone. Too many people make chili in too many different ways for any one recipe to reign supreme. More
The concept of pig parts in pancakes not as crazy as you might think. It's not like I'm suggesting that you put say, pig's snouts in your scones. And this is not your typical breakfast pancake, but okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake made with shredded naga-imo (a type of mountain root), shredded cabbage, flour, eggs, and dashi. Additions to the pancake vary by region. Pork belly, various kinds of seafood and vegetables, mochi, and even cheese can go into the batter. If pork belly, why not trotters? And if trotters, why not snouts or ears? You see where I'm going with this. More
Scrapple sounds like an insult, the name you call the runt in gym class. More likely it derives from the terms scraps and scrappy. And what a fitting name indeed for a traditional Pennsylvania-Dutch dish made from the odds and ends of the pig, stewed, chopped, or ground up, and mixed with cornmeal and flour. (Yum.) Often the cornmeal is cooked in the gluey gelatinous stock that comes from such a commingling of pig parts in a pot. More
To avoid pig's ears exploding in a deep fryer or microwave, I pan-fry pig's ears. The ears don't turn out quite as crispy, but pig skin really wants to get crispy in oil, so it's hard not to end up with something toothsome even if all you do is very gently brown the ears in a little bit of oil in your pan. More
I have friends, and perhaps you do too, who think nothing of tending to a pork loin or roasting a chicken, but shy away from cooking cephalopods of any kind. This strikes me as odd, for in terms of difficulty of cooking and time expenditure, a quick searing of octopuses, which can then be dressed in any number of oil-and-vinegar-type dressings, takes no time at all. More
You can sauté or pan-fry the sweetbreads with whatever flavors you like. This time, I used mustard seed and turmeric, sautéed with plenty of onions and chili peppers, for a vaguely Indian preparation that tasted nice with fragrant basmati on the side. More
Each year for Valentine's Day, I write a special Nasty Bits piece featuring some portion of the animal for which there are reproductive and/or amorous connections. Some cuts, like testicles, are really delightful. But today we're staying above the belt. For that special someone in your life, consider heart: a hard-working muscle that's lean but tender. More
You may think you don't want simmered pork parts in your salad, but think again. This preparation has become a favorite of mine, a clever way to deal with the random meat parts that may be sitting in your freezer. Or, maybe you have a dish that calls for a gelatinous stock you'd like to make with a trotter, but you don't know what to do with the trotter afterwards. Pig parts, served at room temperature, dressed in a basic vinaigrette of olive oil, vinegar, and mustard, is the way to go. More
For a deboned fish head's soup, I like salmon heads. You can use any fish head you like, so long as it's large and meaty enough to be worth your time, but if you use salmon heads, consider dill and cream. The procedure is easy enough—sauté some onions or leeks, add the salmon heads and dill and some potatoes or other vegetables, if you like. Simmer, then separate the fish meat from the bones and reintroduce the morsels of tender salmon to the soup, along with more dill and cream. The taste of the stock is fishy without being too overwhelming, especially since it's enriched with cream. More
Why do people want their lamb chops to look like lollipops? As far I can see, a rack of lamb, consisting of the loin and part of the ribs, get "frenched" for aesthetic reasons only. Beauty aside, I would venture the claim that frenching a rack of lamb is neither an efficient nor a tasty use of your time or your butcher's time. Since we eat pork ribs and beef ribs, why not lamb? Why scrape away that part of the lamb's ribs, called by some the lamb breast, when those fatty, sinewy sections, with a layer of meat that's tender and flavorful, make for such good eating right off the bone? More
What makes cheeks so good? Relatively lean, yet very moist meat. There are few parts of the animal for which this is true. Usually, you need marbled fat to get the same degree of tenderness—say, in the neck region, the shoulders, or in parts of the brisket. But cheek meat is like hock meat—the same kind of lean meat connected by lots of tissues and collagen. Cook it for a long time, and the meat breaks down into hockey-puck-sized nuggets of fork-tender flesh. More
Jimmyjo, that tongue was just plopped into a pot and simmered with stock. When i don't have stock, I use water. Nothing fancy. But if you are up for it, you can also confit a tongue, or sous vide it too. I did a confit tongue recipe way back when:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/11/the-nasty-bits-tongue-and-lentils.html
Hope that helps!
nomnomnick - you may have had what is called "book tripe," a different part of the cow's stomach that does indeed have a crunchier mouthfeel. This is honeycomb tripe, which gets very soft when simmered.
calkew - i really like that. Fat creams up.....I know exactly what you mean.
thanks bill W. Fixed.
Hi folks,
As always, thank you so much for all your help and your opinionated answers about offal.
Like Ben I'm pretty disappointed about all the R and D's chopped liver haters - it's like clash of civilizations as it applies to chopped liver - how can two such mutually exclusive world-views about chopped liver exist? I'm really quite troubled by this.
Joy of Kosher - I've also heard about the Jewish "ghettos" in Shanghai during that period in history. Fascinating stuff.
Hi MerMei,
Yes, I've also seen poultry blood being offered in various regions in China. Not so much in the states. I don't know if poultry blood in h and s soup is a uniquely Taiwanese concoction. I do know that poultry blood is considered more of a delicacy in China than pork blood because it has a lighter, more velvety texture.
dennis and johnny, i picked these up just walking around a green market in NYC. farmers markets are a surprisingly good source of offal because people running smaller-scale operations will often take the time to save the lesser cuts.
Hi folks, I'm sorry, i really did mean to put it in the post, and maybe this deserves a follow up post sometime in the future .
I firmly maintain that you can choose to skip the soaking, pre-cooking, and pressing of sweetbreads. Doing so will give you a firmer texture, but I happen to like a loose texture on sweetbreads just as much. Chefs will agree. There are books that instruct you to prep your sweetbreads and others that tell you it's optional. Hmm, yes, this does deserve another post, I think. But yes, teacher talk, I think if the only barrier to your not cooking sweetbreads more at home is because you don't like the extra work, then skip it. Unless you absolutely prefer the firmer version.
BitchinFixins, if someone were to procure an udder or two for me, then I would be more than happy to play around with it. I mean, experiment with it in terms of cooking preparation and flavoring.
a cook in St. Louis: yes, you can simmer lamb ribs in the crock pot - is that what you mean? you won't get the cap of fat to crisp up, and you'll have to strain out the excess fat after simmering, but the meat would be very tender and delicious.
p.s. suckling pig broth is like any boiled pig bone broth, as far as I can taste.
jtotti - you can use the stock for anything - your holiday stuff, gravy, etc, but since this stock does have more body, it makes for a nice soup with noodles, too.
ah, zorazen, but the point is that you had a tradition of sorts, yes?
will wander, I think if I had more time I might have made a little pate with the livers, seeing as how I had two. Not that the menu would've needed more fatty things on it...
Hi folks, thanks for all of the support and kind comments. Eating the liver definitely helps. Maybe because of all the iron.
Hi folks,
I just want to clarify that these two sentences (below) need to be read together, and I apologize for not making that clearer. I have neither the research nor expertise to argue that the greater challenge is media coverage, but simply that this was what I was told in interviews with people in the industry.
Short answer: there was no consensus. While the oil spill caused serious environmental damage, the greater challenge is combating the negative press about Gulf seafood.
Hi Guys, I've not seen bamboo leaves at the Chinese markets where I shop. I've always used banana as well.
honeybaby789: What a good comment! Thank you for reminding me. I should do a post about that; I love marinated skate in my cold noodles.
Adam, thanks for the recommendation! I've been twice now for the take-out NY slice here, and tried some of the other ones too. NY slice is really great; I only wish the sauce was more tart.
Does the hot pot come with other choices of vegetables and fillings to cook in the broth? Seems like most items are already cooked to plop into the soup?
Fatfudge - I'm going to guess that you don't like anise-y, licorice-like tastes? I'm not a huge fan myself but i love that slight hint of anise in the cookies - not to overwhelming.
katie potato - Lots of cooks use the bricks of lard but I prefer to render my own, or go to a butcher shop that sells freshly rendered lard. I do so for the same reasons I try not to eat factory-farmed meat, whenever possible, that is. I'm not sure that in a taste test you could definitely say that the cookies made from the processed blocks of lard were worse, but I haven't tried both side to side.
oh man, NW cajun, you put HOCKS w/ your boiled nuts? i do love you.
Ok, well, this morning i woke up and there are tiny little red bumps all over fingers where the molting occurred two days ago.
So YES, WEAR GLOVES! Everyone. wear gloves.
Hi folks, just want to confirm that my hands have indeed stopped molting for good, though this morning i woke up with a minor pain on my left earlobe. So....... of course, it must have been the gingko.
Very funny, AK. I was actually kind of waiting for someone to say that.
Hi folks,
Um, as usual, very sorry for the lag time in my response:
teachertalk: Not hard. Really quite easy – the carapace is hard but it slides off it you dig with your fingernails at the right point of pressure.
Qawsed : Really? Have you ever kept them as pets? Maybe I should get a fish tank and save a couple the next time I buy mantis shrimp.
Everyone who wants to know about size: they're four to five inches across, but maybe 1.5 inches of that is tail/head and the rest is meat.
Amandarama: Yes, I refrigerated them for a few hours before dispensing with them.
Katchimo : I've only seen them at Chinese markets, not even korean or japanese. But if someone finds a good source let us know!
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Hi Umamma,
Yes, we put up kenji's recipe for Hainnanese scallion oil as an example of something that would taste great with the tongue, but you could use any number of garnishes and sauces, such as chimichurri, a tomatillo puree (salsa verde-esque), etc.