Getting offally difficult .....

[9fingers]

It seems that most supermarkets have cut their range of offal drastically or totally.
My local traditional butcher is no longer that traditional has they do not butcher carcasses on the premises and I have to pre order offal that comes vac-packed and frozen and very expensive.

Seems that round here only Morrisons are stocking things like kidney and ox heart. The latter makes a delicious casserole in the slow cooker.
I'd have thought that in increasingly inflationary times people would be looking to use cheaper cuts to make tasty meals for less but not if the shops won't sell it.

Just off to buy some kidney to brew up some kate and sidney pie filling for the freezer.

Bob

 

[Woodbloke]

Just off to buy some kidney to brew up some kate and sidney pie filling for the freezer.

Bob

You mean 'snake n'pygmy' surely Bob? :lol:

 

[DaveL]

Just off to buy some kidney to brew up some kate and sidney pie filling for the freezer.

Bob

You mean 'snake n'pygmy' surely Bob? [emoji38]

Oh yes [emoji106]

 

[AJB Temple]

It's been heading that way for years. Deplorable. People will not eat the stuff but have no idea what goes into the processed food they buy....

Can still get calves liver usually, lambs and pigs liver. Butchers have no idea how to prepare claves liver generally.
Ox tail occasionally in waity rosy and now and again in local butchers
Kidneys sometimes, but never with the fat caul on
Chicken livers usually only frozen now.

Pigs heads have to be ordered in as do sweetbreads, hearts etc. Often the butcher lets me down with sweetbread orders.
Trotters need to be ordered in but are very cheap when you do.
Brains (only legal from under 1 years old) are unavailable.
Duck and goose liver unavailable from butchers.
Very hard to get stomach linings.
Tripe has totally disappeared.
Chitterlings I have not seen for decades.
Sausage skins are online only.
Chicken carcasses are usually free and plentiful.

I think butchers have stopped doing much actual butchery (as have restaurants sadly) and everything comes from meat processors who sell the offal, offcuts and strippings to the canned meat and pet food industries.

Fish is worse.

 

[MattS]

Just another depressing reflection on the state of the country.

It's the same across all sectors, less real choice just lots of slight variations.

Did manage to get some pigs cheeks last week, 2 for a £1 I think, we eat most things and regularly eat liver and kidney but never cooked cheek.

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

Ox tail occasionally

I think you'll recall B.S.E.?

Anything with a generous helping of spinal cord/brain (hence above comments about under 1 year old brains) took a hammering in terms of The Great British Public buying it for nosh.

 

[RogerS]

.....
Pigs heads have to be ordered in as do sweetbreads, hearts etc. Often the butcher lets me down with sweetbread orders.
Trotters need to be ordered in but are very cheap when you do.
Brains (only legal from under 1 years old) are unavailable.
Duck and goose liver unavailable from butchers.
Very hard to get stomach linings.
Tripe has totally disappeared.
Chitterlings I have not seen for decades.
Sausage skins are online only.
Chicken carcasses are usually free and plentiful.

.....

I think a lot of us are thinking "That's no great loss" !!

 

[AJB Temple]

Indeed Rog, hence the problem. People are still eating the stuff though - hidden in processed sausages and factory made meat dishes.

To me, it seems a bit wrong just to eat the internal parts of animals that we heave been conditioned to regard as acceptable. A steak comes or chop is just a bit of animal body in the same way a sweetbread or liver or kidney is. If we are going to raise animals to kill them then we should probably follow a nose to tail approach. Must say, I draw the line at sucking the jelly out of eyeballs though (tried it once = never again) and both tripe and chitterlings are low on my list of things I would choose to eat first :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The only part of a pig you can't eat is its squeal.

My b.i.l played rugby in N.Z. One day had to to go away for match, and as it was over a certain distance it was customary to stay overnight in the clubhouse or somewhere to save the journey home and allow beer.
He could eat anything, but for breakfast on the Sunday the Maori had fish heads the size of a diner plate. The monster sitting opposite him picked up the head and sucked the contents through the eye socket - Mike said it was the only time he ever remembered running out of the door to throw up. :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I think you'll recall B.S.E.?

My sister and b.i.l. could never give blood in NZ because they were in Britain during certain years.

 

[AJB Temple]

Fish heads are back 'in' again for thos in the know . Fallow restaurant in London (v good YT channel - check it out) serve large cod's heads as a main course and very good they are too. Lots of meat, great texture.

 

[Cabinetman]

Fish heads are back 'in' again for thos in the know . Fallow restaurant in London (v good YT channel - check it out) serve large cod's heads as a main course and very good they are too. Lots of meat, great texture.

There’s a fish merchant in Grimsby who has cornered the market on Cod cheeks and tongues.
Personally I don’t eat Cod, too many worms.
Nose to tail eating is definitely on the rise here in the States.

 

[AndyP]

I think you'll recall B.S.E.?

My sister and b.i.l. could never give blood in NZ because they were in Britain during certain years.

That is the case here too. If you have spent a cumulative total of one year in the UK between 1980 and 1996. Seems daft but I guess it is supported by statistics. 364 days in the UK eating whatever meat you want and you are deemed to be clear. 365 days and even if you are vegetarian than you a risk.
I give my pint when I can in the UK, before I left I had achieved my Bronze and Silver awards….tie pins.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I got to 43 before I had to stop because of prescription meds. I really wanted the 50.

 

[AJB Temple]

Largely influenced by my father who was a keen donor, I got gold, but doubt I will get Emerald (75) as where we live now they make it super inconvenient to donate as we have exactly zero donation centres and I have never seen a mobile unit here since we moved.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I gave blood in the first place only because I have an intense dislike of needles, and was attempting to overcome it. It didn't work.

 

[Dr.Al]

Largely influenced by my father who was a keen donor, I got gold, but doubt I will get Emerald (75) as where we live now they make it super inconvenient to donate as we have exactly zero donation centres and I have never seen a mobile unit here since we moved.

Similar situation here. I used to be able to donate at work and then they stopped that so I went to one of the three local donation centres. I got to 50 something donations, but then they gradually closed the centres until now there's only one, which is a quite a drive away and is always there on the same day of the week: a day I can never make because of long-standing commitments. Occasionally the blood centre rings me to ask me to give blood again and I answer "how, you've closed all the centres?"

 

[AJB Temple]

Yep. Exactly that. I've never really understood why they don't simply have a drop in room at all main hospitals where you could turn up at an agreed time and donate. I think there are plenty of people who would donate as the town hall centres I usually used to use were always busy and there was no appointment system. Maybe they have enough blood so don't need donations so much these days.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They're often desperate for blood. A set up in hospitals would be brilliant - think how many people would pass it on the way out after visiting friends and relatives who had had transfusions.

I remember the old days when you got given a bottle of Guinness or pale ale afterwards.

 

[AJB Temple]

Ha! I never experienced that. I started when I was about 17 after witnessing a really awful road accident (*), and they gave you a cup of tea and a biscuit so you had to wait around for a bit in case of fainting. My girlfriend went with me at the time and she was convinced that girl blood was different. She had very thick long blonde hair, so that may be relevant, who knows. Anyway, she fainted. Was quite sweet.

* head on collision between car and bus, we (me plus the blonde) were at the front of the bus on way home from a night out. Two young men wiped their lives out literally on the front of the bus. Newty I think. Bus driver got a fractured neck. It's indelibly inscribed in my mind as I tried fruitlessly to save one of them who was choking on his own blood. We were extra shocked at the time that a couple of young doctors who lived nearby were laughing and joking a bit (black humour) as we all waited for the ambulance to arrive. Both young guys were already certified dead by then by these docs. Studying with medics later and having one as a g/f I realised that they see so much death and disaster they have to develop a thick skin. :|

 

[Malc2098]

'Forced' to give my first donation in 1970 while at Police training college. Coach load of nurses turned up, which softened the blow.

Still donating now. I'm a 'First RespOnder' (O Neg) so I'm always asked to book the next appointment quickly.

They come to my local rugby club every 3 months.

 

[Tiresias]

Hmm, I’ve been meaning to comment on this. Your best chance for decent offal is a Chinese super market with a butchery section. There is one down Leith Walk that I use. I think that it is run separately to the main shop, but conversing about licence/lease/ownership is a bit beyond my Chinese. Possibly not entirely legal. But I can see into the back shop where the carcasses are cut up. They supply a lot of the Chinese restaurants in the ‘burgh.

Now these were all fresh, laid out in ali trays on the chilled counter

Pig
Snout
Tongue
Ear
Brain
Lung
Stomach
Spleen
Liver
Kidneys
Intestine
Something that looked like a gland. Pancreatic perhaps, the language problem became a bit insurmountable at this point. Let’s call it a sweetbread. Could be testicle.
Trotters
Tail
They say they can get me blood, on a day’s notice. Mao xue wang.

Beef
Honeycomb tripe

Chicken
Gizzard
Heart
Liver
Something floppy. Frankly no idea. Mime can only go so far. Lung maybe?

And then you have the delights of the frozen food. For which I will single out chicken paws and beef manifold, purely for the translation. Duck feet, beef tendon (no, lovely actually; had it in Honkers with a tangerine sauce), fish swim bladder (maw), frogs legs (really popular in Vietnam and Cambodia).

And you’ll love this one: preserved duck neck. Present from a Chinese MA student. It's the one on the left.



Obviously you’ll need a city with a sizeable Chinese/South east Asian population. But it occurs to me that a Hallal butchery would do the same, but lamb rather than pork.

And don’t discount the main supermarkets. Maybe your southern outlets are a bit squeamish, but Morrisons and Asda up here, particularly if you go to one with a large immigrant catchment, can do you livers and kidney and heart from cow, pig and chicken. I’ve had tripe from Morrisons, and bizarrely fish liver (monkfish I think).

 

[9fingers]

We have some chinese supermarkets and quite a few polish ones. So that a good thought! Thanks

Darn sarf, of the major supermarkets only Morrisons list ox heart, beef kidney etc online but very rarely on the shelf. The head butcher told me their delivery contain what ever the area manager wants to send them, they don't have the ability to order specific items. So even he is effectively just chief meat shelf stacker as everything is prepacked.

Bob

 

[AJB Temple]

If that is Leith Walk in Edinburgh, it's a bit far for me. Looks brilliant.

 

[Cabinetman]

Just chasing a supply of organic chicken at the moment, it’s quite a distance so will be stocking up when we go, she butchers it all so we should be able to get chicken feet, yes I know not much to eat there!
They are for making stock with, the very best stock, so gelatinous you can turn the dish over and it won’t come out, so good for you, particularly for joints, which I need for my hands.
Also as I’m sure you’re aware homemade stock gives food a wonderful rich taste.

 

[chataigner]

Offal is no problem to find here, but butchers are becoming rarer. Our (excellent) butcher retired recently, no takers for the business and none of the other nearby villages have one any more. St Yrieix, which is a town of 7000 inhabitants has 3, plus the supermarkets of course, so my supply for devilled kidneys etc is assured for the moment.