Offal

Offal refers to the internal organs of birds and animals that are suitable for cooking, as well as feet, ears, tails, and heads. They often require longer cooking times compared to meat.

To prepare dishes from offal, you will need a sharp knife, a frying pan, a pot, or an oven - depending on how you plan to cook them.

Suitable products for offal include liver and entrails from pork, beef, and lamb. Heads, tails, limbs, kidneys, udders, stomachs, diaphragms, liver, lungs, spleen, and throats are also consumed as food.

Tongues are boiled, marinated, or made into meat jelly. Hearts can be stewed or used for salads with vegetables. Liver is used for main dishes and as a filling for pies. Tails are boiled, fried, or stewed. Offal is used to prepare soups and meat jellies.

Offal must be well cleaned of blood and impurities, should not be refrozen, must not have cuts or tears, or change color on the surface. Hearts should be cut lengthwise and cleaned of large blood vessels, heads should be divided into symmetrical parts, cleaned of hair, brains, and tongues. Kidneys should be whole and brown, and the liver should be free of lymph nodes.

Filtering organs, such as liver and kidneys, should be soaked for at least four hours to ensure that no harmful substances remain. To remove bitterness from liver, remove membranes, ducts, and marinate it in soy sauce, egg white, salt, and cornstarch. To reduce odor when cooking stomachs, first boil them, then fry or bake them. To eliminate strong odor from kidneys, cut them in half and remove the fat from the core.