Eating liver, Yeah I know, it’s not just a normal thing for most people to eat organs. I don’t recall every eating them or being served them in my life. I’ve seen menus with “odd” things like cow tongue and chicken livers and it kinda gives me a “yeah I probably won’t go there to eat..” it’s true, seeing a chicken liver doesn’t get me like “get in my belly” like sourdough bread does!
I don’t know, is it normal to eat organs? Do most Americans eat organs?
I don’t actually know. I know for me and most people I know, it’s not normal. But it’s healthy right? They are filled with nutrition that our body needs. I mean, really, it’s just a different type of a muscle… So why not eat them!? If they are so healthy for you, why don’t most people eat them?
Probably because you don’t find chicken livers next to the chicken nuggets in the grocery store, you won’t see a cow tongue, chicken liver, mozzarella pizza. You just don’t find anything like that at the grocery store and how many people do you know raise and butcher their own animals?
I’m sure half the people that do butcher their own animals, will keep the organs to eat. At least half.. we’ve butcher chickens for 3 years and that wasn’t my main concern.. just saying. I wanted the pastured whole chicken meat! But boy, what a waste just throwing them organs away! I’m kicking myself now!
So is it just a lost tradition? Convenience came with the grocery stores and eating organs just got lost for most people.
I do recall one of my aunt and uncles lived on a farm and I remember something about cow tongue. I don’t remember eating it, but maybe they were cooking it or it was in the fridge. So there is something, a little of something from growing up not completely lost!
But how does one go about eating organs when you’re kinda grossed out of them? There is another option then eating them, there are many kinds of supplements you can buy and start taking those to make it easy!
But to becoming healthier and save money, you just buy them or make sure to save them when you butcher and start using them in meals! I’ve listened to a podcast, if I knew what it was, I would share it, but eating organs compared to taking an organ supplement, you would need to take an organ supplement everyday compared to just eating organs a couple times a week.
I did try cooking a cow liver. I sliced up the liver with some onions and fried it in some butter on the stove. Just liver and onions and it was fine. It wasn’t nasty nasty but it wasn’t super good. Mainly it was the texture of the liver, I think one could simply do it a couple times and figure out how to cook them so it’s not too chewy. Some of the liver was like a nice rare, cooked steak that pretty much fell apart in your mouth and some of the liver was too tough. So, once you fried them up a couple times, I’m sure they’d be pretty good for eating a couple times a month like that!
What I have started doing, is puree the organs and adding it to meals like spaghetti or meatballs. Things like that. About 1/4 cup of pureed organs. Nobody notices! A LOT of added nutrients and nobody even notices! How great is that! Doing it this way has been easy so far. Just use a blender or immerse blender and blend until smooth (you may need to add a little water,) and add to your meal when you’re cooking it!
The smell of organs can be a bit to get used to, but you don’t taste that smell. It definitely smells like blood. Cutting them up (if it’s large from a cow) will be a little bloody.
For now, I’ll save us money by keeping organs from our animals to add to meals! When you send your animal to the butcher; don’t forget to tell them you want your organs!
Do you eat organs? Did you grow up eating organs? How do you like to cook them? And a big question, do you eat it raw? Is it even safe to eat it raw?
I’ve tried it raw. Diced it up and froze it and then swallowed it down. It wasn’t so bad… but I feel better eating it cooked! I don’t know, you see it often where people are eating raw organs! Let me know what you think!?
