Tonight, I made a big delicious pot of beef mushroom barley soup. I had seen some oxtails at the store a few weeks ago, threw them in the freezer, and thought of the beef soup my mom used to make. I also put in a big meaty beef shank to shred at the end. My kids about flipped at the idea of "oxtails." I merely said that they were pieces of beef used for soup; no other elaboration. Rex doesn't care much for beef soup so I've got a whole bunch left for myself for lunches and I also froze some soup and leftover oxtails for my dad (who was over the moon when I called to tell him what I made!).
This got me thinking about other "wierd" things I ate growing up. My grandparents were all Polish, 2 coming directly from Poland, so I had lots of peasant food/hearty home cooking. I used to love beef tongue the way my mom and grandma cooked it - so tender that it practically melted in your mouth with yummy mushroom gravy. Baby calves' liver with sauteed onions and mushrooms - good too! My mom used to make tripe soup with lots of chopped veggies and rice or barley in it. Nice, thick and stew-like. Unfortunately, I had a bad tripe incident in Caen, France where they weren't too good about cleaning out the tripe before they cooked it and it just didn't have the same appeal...A really special treat was veal chops with the delicious veal kidneys in a light mustardy sauce; I loved that! Maybe all this "wierd" food is responsible for my love of foie gras, pates, and any other thing...I am willing to try just about anything once.
Did anyone else grow up eating "freaky" foods?
Sandra
{typo in title corrected}
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Posts: 799 | Location: Near Chicago, IL | Registered: 03 May 2004
When I read your post's title I expected to read about insects and strange flavours mixes... it's obvious that the concept of "freaky" food depends on what we consider as "normal" food... in Italy (at least northern Italy, where I grew up) and in Spain beef tongue, liver and tripes are considered as perfectly "normal" food! Not to talk about oxtail, that, after all, is just meat... I grew up eating my granma's and mom's tripes (with veggies and big white beans and parmesan cheese on top), liver, chicken liver and rice "pie", kidneys (sauteed in butter, garlic and rosemary.... I just LOVE them!). I have just one memory of eating something that I considered weird (and not at all interesting): my dad made lung soup once (his granny used to do that) and we didn't like it... he probably had memories of that when meat was hard to find and the soup seemed yummier!
Sandra, Sorry you had a bad tripe experience--it's my favorite "freaky" food. A few years ago, we were in Poland and too a tour to Chopin's house. While everyone was inside exploring, we went to a little snack bar in the parking lot and had homemade (cooked in front of our eyes) tripe soup! It was wonderful. Say "Chopin" and my mouth waters! Sharon
When I was growing up we ate "variety" meats on a regular basis. I never could stomach liver (except for chicken livers)- the texture still grosses me out. But my mother made beef heart stuffed with dried fruits; oxtail soup, and braised oxtails, short ribs braised long with veggies and aromatic herbs, hearty stews made with the "tough" cuts of beef, stuffed flank steak, and, of course, beef tongue, which was always a favorite - served either with a salsa verde, or in a pungent mustard cream sauce. (I was delighted to find tongue with salsa verde on the menu at Casalinga in Florence when we were there in 2005)
One of the reasons these were part of our diet was that they were affordable, at a time when there wasn't much money. And now, here in the Bay Area tongue (when you can get a butcher to special order it) costs an arm and a leg, and has become a luxury rather than a staple - last time I bought one it was about #8./lb. When we visited my daughter in Illinois over the holidays I did see beef tongue in the local Meijer for $1.99/lb - ONCE - at a point when we weren't going to be cooking for a couple of days. Then, when I went back - it was gone and no one knew when they might get it again.
Oh yeah - my Nonna also made ethereally light ravioli using brains - which are labor intensive to prepare!
Posts: 1882 | Location: Berkeley, CA | Registered: 22 March 2005
I was about to rely just like Giulia did. Actually, the foods you name are pretty popular thoughout Italy, with some regionality to this. Personally I love tge "fifth quarter" meats, with the exception of tripe and lampredotto (which is the very end of the digestive system of a cow: the very, very end!) and liver is one of my all time favorite. Which is odd, because I would really like to taste "pajata", which is the thin intestines of suckling lamb sitll filled with the coagulated milk and used for a pasta sauce. Selling pajata is not legal, but making it from homegrown animals is. About the only other meat that I don't eat is frogs, again popular here in the Milano area.
Liver is a food that people love or hate . I love calves liver sauteed with onions. I am also a fan of chicken liver. My Dad made a homemade sausage of pig's liver with many spices and peppers. (fegatazzo?) Also I have eaten Cacio Marcetto which is a cheese that has is "processed" with larvae (although when you eat it the larvae have disappeared). My wife and her girlfriends who grew up in Isaan (NE Thailand) love fried insects. I have tried the ants but refuse to go to bigger bugs!
Posts: 657 | Location: Palmyra, NJ, USA | Registered: 29 July 2003
My french family used to eat pigs feet...me included when I was a child....the thought now grosses me out...but so did a cows face at the meat market in Florence! What does one do with a cow's face? hehehe Great topic by the way!
Never seen cow's face in Italy but in Spain they use cow's face or pig's nose to obtain a sticky/gelly sauce for some dishes such as "callos"/tripes. As far as I know in Italy we use pig's skin "cotica" to obtain the same effect.
I do like frog's legs, too. With some nice lemony sauce, lightly sauteed - ooohhh yum!
My dad was always a big fan of pickled pig's feet. I couldn't quite get there, although I did like pork hocks (I'm guessing that is further up the leg?) that my mom would cook and then fry up the hocks in butter/oil until the skin would get nice and crispy. Dad is also a fan of headcheese, kind of a lunchmeat that has various chunks of pork in a jellied consistency. Loves it with mustard; just looks nasty to me.
Another "odd" thing that we used to eat (and I honestly have one in my freezer now that my dad bought me before Christmas) is kiszka. It is a sausage made with barley, pork, and blood. But it is not dense enough to cut in slices. The casing is very thin and you just slit your portion across the casing and scoop the filling out. We always ate it with good rye bread and butter and pork and beans. I'm sure the day that I cook that for myself will be the day my husband and kids will swear I've gone off the edge.
Although it is not an unusual food, we all like smoked butt. I just consider it another piece of ham, but the name is funny. My kids mentioned it to some friends a few years ago and the other kids were totally freaked out. Mine shrugged their shoulders and said "We like it!"
Sandra
Posts: 799 | Location: Near Chicago, IL | Registered: 03 May 2004
This brings back memories of my Grandmother. Oxtail, liver, headcheese, pigs trotters, sweetbread, stuffed heart ... and I still remember the day (as a young child) when I opened her larder and found a sheep's head staring at me!
I have not eaten liver since reading that "Liver is a cesspool of toxic waste". Think about it!
Sheena
Posts: 2271 | Location: West Vancouver, B.C. Canada | Registered: 28 February 2004
I think of calves' liver as a "tonic" food: restores my energy and tastes like butter if it is cooked properly. I like it with onions (or leeks), mushrooms and garlic. Serve it with broccoli and I'm one happy camper. (I don't eat mashed white potatoes because there isn't enough nutrition in them, but sweet potatoes are wonderful with this too.)
In Quebec, head cheese is readily available and was a staple for my ancestors and it is still something that my Dad enjoys as a treat. I find it has too much fat.
But I love almost all pates. Venison with cranberry and nuts; chicken liver; pork with cherries; etc.
Also in Quebec, we have blood sausages which I just love. These also feel like a tonic to me.
I don't think that I have ever had oxtails. I considered having a tripe sandwich at the market in Florence, but chickened out.
What is fascinating to me is how often Europeans (or descendents living in North America) coupled these low-cost meats with really hearty and healthy complex carbs -- such as barley, whole grains, etc.
Our ancestors knew a thing or two about the value of eating less processed foods. A lesson that still needs to be re-taught to a generation of people who have grown up on highly processed foods containing little nutrition.
Originally posted by MarionP: I think of calves' liver as a "tonic" food: restores my energy and tastes like butter if it is cooked properly. I like it with onions (or leeks), mushrooms and garlic. Serve it with broccoli and I'm one happy camper. (I don't eat mashed white potatoes because there isn't enough nutrition in them, but sweet potatoes are wonderful with this too.)
In Quebec, head cheese is readily available and was a staple for my ancestors and it is still something that my Dad enjoys as a treat. I find it has too much fat.
But I love almost all pates. Venison with cranberry and nuts; chicken liver; pork with cherries; etc.
Also in Quebec, we have blood sausages which I just love. These also feel like a tonic to me.
I don't think that I have ever had oxtails. I considered having a tripe sandwich at the market in Florence, but chickened out.
What is fascinating to me is how often Europeans (or descendents living in North America) coupled these low-cost meats with really hearty and healthy complex carbs -- such as barley, whole grains, etc.
Our ancestors knew a thing or two about the value of eating less processed foods. A lesson that still needs to be re-taught to a generation of people who have grown up on highly processed foods containing little nutrition.
My grandmother used to make something called creton...made with mixed pork and spices...she used to also cook blood sausage...yikkkes I could not eat that.....
I've learned to love sweetbreads... preferably eaten in a fine restaurant and served with a delicious sauce.
My grandfather was "Pennsylvania Dutch" and raised on a pig farm. He said the only thing they didn't use was the "oink." He always had pickled pigs' feet and head cheese around.
Posts: 469 | Location: Chicago | Registered: 25 April 2006
If any of you remember in the Little House books, Laura and Mary got the pig's tail and used the bladder for a balloon. Ma would also boil the head, carefully scrape it and then make headcheese out of it.
Alice, I don't know how they made brains and eggs, and I'm not sure which ingredient went into the pan first, the brains or the eggs. But the mixture came out looking like scrambled eggs, which is how I inadvertently ate some. Blehck again.
My mom used to simmer pork hocks with garbanzo beans, and apparently she used to cook beef heart but by the time I was born times weren't quite so desperate so it was dropped from the menu.
She also used to cook haggis when she and my dad started hosting a Robert Burns dinner annually.
Posts: 688 | Location: Toronto | Registered: 18 February 2006
In CdiC any Thursday or Saturday you can go to a pork vendor stall and buy mezzofegato, a sausage made of half meat and half liver, and it is super. Oh, today is Thursday! Gotta run!
Topic Closed
Not to talk about oxtail, that, after all, is just meat...
or hate 
. I love calves liver sauteed with onions. I am also a fan of chicken liver.
