organ-meats-msg – 4/18/08
Medieval cooking of organ meats. Livers, kidneys, hearts, testicles, brains, penises, lungs. Recipes.
NOTE: See also these files: liver-msg, exotic-meats-msg, food-sources-msg, haggis-msg, sauces-msg, sausages-msg, blood-dishes-msg, Blood-Soup-art.
KEYWORDS: organ meats kidney liver pate heart brain testicles penis udder medieval SCA recipe
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Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 18:16:18 EDT
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: SC - Bourneys- A Redaction
This the period-like recipe I used for the Bear Heart at EK Crown which I know
you've all been waiting for. ;-)
Original:
Bourneys
Take pipes, hertes, neres, myltes, and of the rybbes of the Swynw, or elles
take (if thou wilt) Mallard or Goos, and choppe hem small, and then parboile
it in faire water, and take it vp, and pike it clene, and putte into a potta,
and cast thereto ale ynough. Sauge, Salt, and lete boile right ynowe, and then
serue it forth.
Translation:
Take lungs, hearts, ears, spleens, and of the ribs of swine, or else take (if
you will) mallard or goose, and chop them small, and then parboile it in clean
water, and then take it up, and pick it clean, and put into a pot, and cast
thereto ale enough, sage, salt, and let it boil right enough, and then serve
it forth.
Redaction (Period-like adaptation):
Bourneys
(copyright 1998, L.J. Spencer, Jr.)
1 bear heart
12 sage leaves
1 tsp salt
Ale to cover
Cover heart with water. Boil for 15 minutes, removing scum as it forms. Remove
heart from water. Cut into bite-size pieces. Put heart pieces into a small
pot. Add sage. Add ale to cover and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to
simmer. simmer until heart is tender. Serve.
Ras
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 23:47:57 -0700
From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <acrouss at gte.net>
Subject: Re: SC - testicle recipes and sauces
Hi all from Anne-Marie
We are asked:
> There are recipes for Testicles!!!???? and sauces too!?!!?!?
> (And I always thought you had to eat them raw... the things people don't
> tell you...)
> Genevia
I enjoy the "Red Deer Testicles in Hunting Season" from Taillevent. We do
it with the "oysters" from chicken backs, and I've been meaning to try it
with real testicles, just to be able to compare texture, etc.
Its a spicy and piquant broth that offsets the meat bits rather nicely. Try
it!
- --AM
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 19:59:49 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - offal?
Seton1355 at aol.com writes:
<< Excuse me, but what is offal? >>
'Offal' includes the liver, brains, spleen, thyroid, intestines, brains,
lungs, stomach, testicles, penis, heart, womb and kidneys of an animal.
Sometimes it also is used to refer to parts of the animal such as the tongue,
eyes, ears, noses, cheeks, etc. although this usage is rare. Another term used
which may or may not include offal is 'specialty meats'.
Ras
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 17:56:41 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: SC Oysters getting way OT
<< On the other hand there are 'farm oysters'. This little
delicacy, described by Roald Dahl in _My Uncle Oswald_ comes in pairs,
two to each male lamb. >>
They have a flavor slightly reminiscent of liver and a texture not unlike
sweet breads. I will eat them if served but did not find them particularly
memorable enough to seek them out.
Ras
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 09:33:37 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Re: Testicles
Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> Anyone know of a period recipie? I've had these fried, more or less
> straight of the lamb, but with the recent years things have changed
> (i.e. immigration form other parts of the world) such that it might be
> possible to obtain enough of these to serve at a feast...
I don't recall having seen medieval recipes that refer specifically to
testicles. There are a few Roman recipes for various elaborate mixed
stews and patinae that call for capon testicles, IIRC. Somewhere along
the line I have seen recipes for pig's or lamb's fry, but as I recall,
it wasn't immediately clear whether the main ingredient was testicles or
unborn, fetal animals.
There are some late-and/or-post-period recipes (the ones I have seen are
English, but I suspect similar ones can be found in sources from other
countries, particularly France and Spain), again calling for various
assortments of "dainties", such as cock's combs, capon brains, capon
testicles, sweetbreads, etc., to be used in quelcechoses (a.k.a.
kickshaws) and oleos.
FWIW, you may well be able to find testicles in meat packing plants for
those animals corresponding to the type of animal whose
testicles...well, you get the idea, I'm sure. This can only get more
confusing. In other words, I know you can get capon and/or turkey
testicles, usually frozen in bulk, from commercial poultry packing
plants. I have an Asian market in my neighborhood that sells them in
little plastic trays, like ground beef. For all I know, a similar
situation may exist in the case of lamb. For larger animals like steer,
you won't find testicles because they have been removed in a different
way, before slaughter, and are effectively destroyed. But then I doubt
there's much of a culinary market for testicles you have to carve to
serve, anyway.
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 10:23:42 -0600 (CST)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming )
Subject: SC - Finishing the "Bull"
Greetings! Well, we have certainly made more-than-enough use of one
part of the bull. Petits Propos Culinaires printed an article in 1987
entitled "Udder and Other Extremeties: Recipes from the Jews of Yemen"
by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. She included a recipe for udder and
one called "Geed" which I give you here.
Geed (penis of ox or bull)
500 grams penis black pepper
1 tomato, chopped cumin
1 onion chopped saffron
cloves of garlic salt
coriander
Scald the penis and clean it. Boil 10 minutes, remove and slice.
Brown the onion, garlic, coriander in oil. Add penis and fry. Mix
(and add) chopped tomato, pepper, cumin, saffron and salt. cover the
pot. Cook over low flame 2 hours, adding a little water from time to
time to prevent burning. Serve hot. Season with hilbeh.
Hilbeh is a mixture of ground fenugreek seeds that have been soaked in
water for two hours, drained, mixed with tomato puree and a little zhuq
(a spicy mixture of ground black pepper,caraway seed, cardamom, dried
red peppers, garlic, and fresh coriander)."
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 00:32:10 GMT
From: korny at zikzak.net (Kornelis Sietsma)
Subject: SC - Serving brains...
I was browsing for recipes the other day, and found an interesting looking
recipe for a dish that included brains as a primary ingredient. (The
recipe is from "Daz Buoch von Guoter Spise", and looks very cute - brains,
apples, flour and eggs, mixed together and roasted on a spit).
Now I was fed brains (fried in butter - yuum) as a child, and consider them
fairly weird, but very tasty. However, everyone I've described this recipe
to has said "Yuck! no-one will eat *that*"...
What are others' experiences in serving unpopular food such as this at
feasts? I am still very tempted to serve it as a side dish - there must be
*some* people brave enough to try it.
- -Korny (who likes snails and chicken feet as well :)
- --
William Bekwith MKA Kornelis Sietsma | http://zikzak.net/~korny
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 17:31:51 EST
From: aldyth at juno.com (Deborah J Hammons)
Subject: Re: SC - Serving brains...
One of the first Hunters Feasts I ever cooked, a large quantity of
rainbow trout was donated. I cooked it whole, (cleaned) with the head
on. Many of the guests expressed dismay that they could not eat anything
that was still looking at them. For that feast, if someone objected to
the heads, the servers brought them back to the kitchen and we took care
of it. A few feasts with fish have come and gone. The most memorable
was when we appointed one of the servers as the "executioner" so to
speak. The trout were offered to each guest, with the disclaimer, "Head
on or head off?" If the head off was preferred, the executioner was
called, and with a spiffy little guilottine (sp) offed the head right
there at the table. Entertaining as well as filling.
Aldyth
aldyth at juno.com
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 23:49:04 EDT
From: korrin.daardain at juno.com (Korrin S DaArdain)
Subject: Re: SC - Garbage
There is a recipe in Cariadocs Miscellany on Garbage.
Garbage
From Cariadocs Miscellany, Copyright by David Friedman, 1988,
1990, 1992.
_ Two Fifteenth Century
Take faire Garbage, chikenes hedes, ffete, lyvers, And gysers,
and wassh hem clene; caste hem into a faire potte, And caste fressh broth
of Beef, powder of Peper, Canell, Clowes, Maces, Parcely and Sauge myced
small; then take brede, stepe hit in + e same brothe, Drawe hit thorgh a
streynour, cast thereto, And lete boyle ynowe; caste there-to pouder
ginger, vergeous, salt, And a litull Safferon, And serve hit forthe.
1 lb chicken livers 1/2 c fresh parsley, packed down
1 lb chicken gizzards
1 t fresh sage = 6 medium
10.5 oz can conc. beef broth leaves
1 can water
3 1/2 oz bread = 2 slices homemade
1/8 t pepper
1/4 t ginger
1/2 t cinnamon
3 T verjuice
1/8 t cloves
1/2 t salt
1/4 t mace
10 threads saffron
Cut up gizzards to remove the thin bits of gristle connecting the
lumps of meat. Wash and chop parsley and sage. Put broth, meat, herbs,
pepper, cinnamon, mace and cloves into a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer
uncovered 1 hour 10 minutes. About 15 minutes before it is done
simmering, remove about 3/4 cup of the broth and tear up the bread into
it; let soak briefly and mash thoroughly with a mortar and pestle. Put
back into pot, bring back to a boil and cook, stirring, about 5 minutes,
add remaining ingredients and cook a couple of minutes, stirring, and
serve.
Korrin S. DaArdain
Kingdom of An Tir.
Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 14:31:03 -0700
From: "needlwitch at msn.com" <needlewitch at email.msn.com>
Subject: Re: SC - The thingy recipe (a bit OT)
>Alys' recipe for bull penis: Is it period and is the recipe
>available. I'd love to serve this at a feast (if I could get my hands
>on half a dozen thingys).
>
>Drake.
Here is the recipie I have. Remember, you asked for it. :-)
Petits Propos Culinaires printed an article in 1987 entitled "Udder and
Other Extremeties: Recipes from the Jews of Yemen" by Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett.
Geed (penis of ox or bull)
500 grams penis black pepper
1 tomato, chopped cumin
1 onion chopped saffron
cloves of garlic salt
coriander
Scald the penis and clean it. Boil 10 minutes, remove and slice. Brown the
onion, garlic, coriander in oil. Add penis and fry. Mix (and add) chopped
tomato, pepper, cumin, saffron and salt. cover the pot. Cook over low flame
2 hours, adding a little water from time to time to prevent burning. Serve
hot.
Enjoy. Thorbjorn the Cook
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 13:46:07 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Deer Heart - NOT oop
pndarvis at execpc.com writes:
> Also, does anyone have a good recipe for deer heart?
Here is a period recipe for heart. It's not originally for deer heart, but
I expect it would work, although you might want to increase the boiling
time.
Corat
Curye on Inglysch p. 100 (Forme of Cury no. 14)
Take the noumbles of calf, swyne, or of shepe; perboile hem and kerue hem
to dyce. Cast hem in gode broth and do therto erbes, grene chybolles smale
yhewe; seeth it tendre, and lye with yolkes of eyren. Do therto verious,
safroun, powdour douce and salt, and serue it forth.
1 lb calf heart
1 10 oz can conc. beef broth + 1 can water
"herbs": 4 oz spinach
4 oz turnip greens
6 oz scallions
8 egg yolks
1/4 c verjuice
12 threads saffron
"powder douce": 2 t sugar, 2 t cinnamon, 1/2 t ginger
1 t salt
Parboil heart in 4 c water: bring water to boil, add heart, bring back to
boil, total time about 4 minutes. Drain. Cut heart in 1/2"-1" cubes. Put
with broth and chopped washed greens, simmer about 20 minutes. Stir in
beaten egg yolks, turn off heat. Add verjuice, saffron (crushed into
water), spices, salt, and serve it forth.
Numbles means innards. We suspect the title of the recipe is derived from
the French word for "heart" and therefore use heart, but it is also good
made with kidney.
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Sun, 03 Jan 1999 20:56:47 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Organ meats (was SC - Hedgehogs)
snowfire at mail.snet.net wrote, in response to A'aql Ras:
> >You are very close on this one. The organs in the pluck are all closely
> >connected with a network of short large arteries and veins so when you
> >gut the animal you litarally 'pluck' these three out of the cavity in one
> >mass. :-)
>
> What are giblets then? All of the above?
As far as I know, giblets are the heart, stomach, and liver of poultry,
i.e. domestic or game birds _and_ domestic rabbits, in which latter case
the giblets also normally include kidneys. The usual heart, liver, and
gizzard combo in the little bag inside the chicken is what machinery is
capable of removing intact, hence the determination.
Hand-slaughtered-and-butchered poultry would probably also include other
internal organs, for example possibly lungs (except in America where we
are terrified of such things), kidneys, and the more unusual but
eminently edible tongues, brains, and combs, not to mention necks,
wingtips (pinions, silly, not shoes!) and feet.
There are those who maintain rabbit uteri (or was it ovaries?) are
yummy, but the results of that polling aren't yet in from all the
outlying districts.
Adamantius
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 08:48:52 -0500
From: "D. Clay-Disparti" <Clay at talstar.com>
Subject: Re: SC - And Speaking of Kidney
Tina Carney wrote:
> Does anyone want to explain the correct way to prepare Beef Kidney? I
> blanched the kidney three times and it still had a "strong" taste.
>
> Brighid the Ageless
> living the canton of Rimsholt
> in the Glorious Middle Kingdom
You need to be sure to snip out the core of the kidneys after you have skinned
them and cut them in half lengthwise. Then I believe soaking them overnight
would help rather than blanching them. It is my guess that blanching them would
cause the tissue to "Sieze Up" some and, of course, the result would be a
flavour much stronger than anticipated. If you still have a problem, you may
want to change the soaking liquid several times like you do with salted cod.
If you like the pie, you may also want to try steak and kidney pudding. Let
me know if you want the recipe.
Dee/Isabella
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 11:59:25 -0500
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - Pig Maws
>I was at the spermarket yesterday afternoon and I found a small portable
>freezer filled with pig maws. Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation and
>now have several of them in the freezer. :-) Mordanna was kind enough to share
>a recipe for this treat but that leaves one left.
>
>Does anyone have any period recipes for this food item? An original or
>translated period recipe is OK since the redaction part will be relatively
>easy.I would prefer a recipe source from pre-1450 C.E. but early modern
>would be acceptable.
>
>Ras
Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez
xx. Yrchouns--Take Piggis mawys, & skalde hem wel; take groundyn Porke, &
knede it with Spicerye, with pouder Gyngere, & Salt & Sugre; do it on [th]e
mawe, but fille it nowt to fulle; [th]en sewe hem with a fayre [th]rede, &
putte hem in a Spete as men don piggys; take blaunchid Almaundys, & kerf
hem long, smal, & scharpe, & frye hem in grece & sugre; take a litel