An A to Z of offal

Jump to: Blood | Brains | Caul | Cocks' combs | Ears | Eyes | Feet | Giblets | Heads | Hearts | Intestines | Kidneys | Liver | Lungs | Marrow | Palates | Spleen | Sweetbreads | Tail | Testicles (Fries) | Tongues | Tripe | Udder

Blood

"This is a dish (blood soup) that 6-8 years old girls make themselves but which young boys also prize highly. When it is ready, some of the soup is poured into a flat dish and the boys lie on their stomachs round this and eat like dogs, while the small girls eat with their hands from the pot."
Sverdrup on the children of Reindeer Chukchi, 1901

The mention of blood as food immediately conjures up images of blood-sucking vampires biting into the necks of nubile virgins. However, you don't need to 
be a vampire, real or imagined, to like animal blood. 

Most cultures eat blood in one form or another and blood puddings (boudin) are made all over Europe. The filling for boudin is basically pig's blood and fat, although the Irish use sheep's blood for drisheen (their version of boudin). In France, they may add onions, chestnuts or small cubes of cooked head meats. In Spain they add rice and in Scotland oats. Whatever the mixture, it is seasoned with spices and herbs, funnelled into intestines and cooked very gently in a broth. In Iceland, where the women make a lot of blood sausages during the slaughtering season in the autumn, the sausages are pickled in whey-barrels. 

Boudin is not the only edible blood product. In Spain, congealed blood is sold in blocks for people to use in different ways. The most common use is for it to be diced and sautéed with onions to serve as a tapa (encebollada in sangre). In Thailand, people add cubes of congealed blood to fish tripe soup. In France, they have Sanguette, a speciality from the Languedoc which was very common when chickens were killed at home. It is still prepared in some rural areas. The chicken is bled over a deep plate. Then the blood is seasoned with crushed garlic, chopped parsley and sometimes sautéed cubes of lean bacon and left to congeal before being fried in a little lard. The pan is deglazed with a little vinegar and the resulting sauce poured over the sanguette. 

A very different version of sanguette is made in the Béarn. The Béarnais prepare theirs with the boiled cheeks, tripe and spleen of calf. These are diced and sautéed with cubes of congealed calf blood. When the meats have coloured, chopped onion, garlic and parsley are added. A little flour is sprinkled all over, some stock added and the whole dish is simmered for about half an hour. Towards the end of the cooking, sliced cornichons and capers are added.

The blood of hare, rabbit or chicken is also used to thicken sauces in civet dishes and others. Brazilian chicken in blood 'frango ao molho pardo' is similar 
to a chicken dish from the Nivernais called poulet en barboille, where the chicken is first cooked in red wine with bacon, baby onions and lots of garlic. When cooked, the sauce is thickened with the blood that was reserved for that purpose.

In Italy, pig's blood is used in a sweet preparation, sanguinaccio, which is found with some variations in Calabria (al cioccolato, when it is cooked with milk, sugar, cocoa powder, almonds and cinnamon, or con il riso, when it is prepared with rice, sugar, raisins, cinnamon and lemon zest). Sanguinaccio is also found in Campania (alla napoletana, where the blood is cooked with milk, chocolate, sugar and candied fruit). A version also exists in Sicily where it seems to have its roots in Arab cooking as I found the recipe in a book called La Cucina Siciliana di Derivazione Araba. The French also have a sweet boudin, from the Nord Pas-de-Calais region, boudin à la flamande which dates back to the late 18th century. The blood is seasoned with onions, salt, ginger, cloves, pepper, sugar and cinnamon, then finally raisins are added.

The Norwegians also use blood to make savoury cakes while the Japanese dry the blood of rattlesnakes to sell as an aphrodisiac. 

Brains

"Have I lived to be carried in a basket like a barrow of butcher's Offal, and to be thrown in the Thames? Well, if I be served Such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out and buttered."
Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor III.v.4-6

Brains are probably the most delicate and finest of all offal, perhaps not so much for their taste as for their soft, creamy texture. Some people think that calf's brains are superior to lamb's but I find both just as good. Brains are very fragile and you need to take great care while preparing them. They need to be soaked, for about half an hour in several changes of cold water to rid them of any excess blood, then the thin outer skin is peeled – no easy task, though dipping the brains in water every now and then helps loosen it. They are then poached in a court bouillon for about 3 minutes to firm them up before using in one of several different ways, the simplest being dipped in seasoned flour and shallow-fried in butter. 

Caul

"The fold of membrane loaded with fat, which covers more or less of the intestines in mammals; the great omentum."

Caul as defined by Webster's dictionary, a perfect description for a membrane that is often used to enclose fillings, meats, brochettes or different terrines. The purpose of using caul is dual, as an envelope but also, for its fat content, to help keep whatever is wrapped in it moist. You can buy caul fresh or salted. I prefer to use it fresh but if you can only find it salted, soak it for 10 minutes before using.

Cocks' combs

The best-known use for cocks' combs is in the classic financière sauce, the garnish for the classic vol-au-vent. I have never seen them sold in England but there is no reason why you cannot order them from an adventurous or knowledgeable butcher. The preparation is rather fiddly. They need soaking, blanching, then whitening, ie cooking in a mixture of water, flour, lemon and salt for about 10 minutes to stop them from blackening. Then they need scraping with a small knife to get rid of the rough exterior.

Once this is done, they are rinsed and rubbed with a little salt to get rid of the last rough bits. Cocks' combs are very rarely used nowadays and when they are, it is more for their gelatinous texture and shape than for their taste. The Russians also use cocks' combs to make a terrine where the diced combs are set in an aspic made with chicken stock, wine and lemon juice. 

Ears

Most people balk at the idea of eating ears but I love the contrast between the crunchy cartilage and the gelatinous skin. The preparation is rather tiresome and some of it will bring you dangerously close to feeling that you are dealing with a human ear, ie removing hair, scraping the wax, etc. As a result, I prefer to eat them in a restaurant or at friends' houses, but here is what you need to do if you want to prepare them yourself. First make sure your butcher cleans them really well before he gives them to you. Even then, you still need to scrape them, singe them, wash, blanch and wash them again to get rid of any scum. After this they are ready to be boiled, for about 2-3 hours with or without the rest of the head, and served as is with a sauce ravigote or gribiche, or breadcrumbed and fried in very hot oil.

Eyes

"For dessert there was simply a handful of bird and fish eyes picked out of the pot" 
Vibe, 1938

Eyes are probably the biggest taboo when talking about offal. Even Fergus Henderson at St John's has not served them yet. And, of course, there is the eternal cliché about Arabs and their predilection for sheep's eyes. Well, apparently it is not only them who are keen on the delicacy. The Russians view them as an aphrodisiac. This unsubstantiated piece of information was passed on to me by Mr. Guérin who was one of my offal butchers in Paris when I tested recipes there. He also said that they eat them stuffed (imagine the number of heads you need to produce a plateful of stuffed eyes).

Well, perhaps they do and perhaps they don't but I have never tried them nor even seen them. However, I have often eaten sheep's eyes, whenever we had sheep's head, and yes, I did from when I was very young. They have a nice chewy texture without being tough, a little like that of squid but without the slipperiness. The secret is to remove the inky, black middle bit without bursting it before you bite into the gelatinous eye socket. I have also eaten fish eyes which are equally delicious but not those of whales, which the Japanese consider choice morsels. The Eskimos eat seal eyes and here is what Høygaard wrote in 1941 of the Angmagssalik Eskimos: "The central nervous system and the eyes are considered very good and usually fall to the lot of the hunter who has caught the animal."

Feet

Feet are rich in gelatine and calf's feet are those normally used to thicken broth and give it body while pig's and lamb's are served in many different ways: in salads and sauces, or breadcrumbed and grilled or also in the case of pig's trotters, used as a casing to make stuffed feet. 

One of the most famous French recipes for pig's feet is pieds de porc à la Ste Menehould. The feet are tightly wrapped in cheesecloth, to keep their shape, and cooked for at least 24 hours, and sometimes up to 40 hours, in a strongly flavoured broth until the bones are so tender that you can eat the whole thing. It is said that they were the undoing of Louis XIV who stopped in Ste Menehould on the road to Varennes to feast on one of his favourite dishes. The delay allowed the revolutionaries to catch up with the royal family and arrest them. 

I was not able to find a proper recipe for pieds de porcs à la Ste Menehould. All the good ones are jealously guarded by those who make them. The best thing I can do is to recommend trying them at Le Pied Rare, a simple café / restaurant in Paris, in the Bastille. The owners were given the recipe by the inn-keeper they worked for in Ste Menehould and they regularly win prizes for their pieds de porc. You can also try them at the Soleil d'Or in Ste Menehould. They are quite unlike any other pig's trotters you will have ever tasted. Another unusual way of preparing feet comes from Morocco, where they cook calf's feet in a sweet-spicy honey sauce. The result is astonishing and totally exquisite. 

The Italians are also very keen on trotters and one of their best-known exports apart from pasta and Parmigiano is zampone, a kind of pig's feet sausage where the feet are boned and stuffed with ground pork meat and rind. Zampone, as well as cotechino (a sausage with the same filling but encased in pork skin) are traditionally served on New Year's Eve, with salsa verde and lentils. Both zampone and cotechino need long simmering, 3-4 hours, and have to be wrapped in cheesecloth to prevent them splitting and losing their shape during cooking. 

Giblets

" ... the burnished gold of the crusts, the fragrance  exuded by the sugar and cinnamon, were but preludes to the delights  released  from the inside  of the pie when the knife broke the crust. First came a soice-laden haze, then chicken livers, hard-boiled eggs, sliced ham, chicken and truffles in masses of piping hot, glistening macaroni, to which the meat juice gave an exquisite hue of suede."
The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Giblets include neck, liver, gizzard and heart in England but in France where they are known as abattis, they also include the head, feet and wings. The livers are sautéed, grilled or made into pâtés, the gizzards grilled or confit (cooked in fat) and the wings marinated and grilled. The head, neck and feet are used to impart flavour to sauces and stocks although they are perfectly edible and quite delicious. 

The Chinese are very keen on chicken, goose or duck feet and prepare them in myriad ways. Another edible part from inside the chicken that few people know about is unhatched eggs. These can be left inside the chicken to cook, sometimes forming an attractive necklace around the stuffing, or they can be carefully taken out and fried. 

Alycot is a famous old-fashioned French stew made from giblets. The word is made up of three different ones: ale (aile/wing), y (et/and) cot (cou/neck). 

"The days of gatchére, of chère-lie, when we sacrificed many subjects (geese, ducks, turkeys) we make, with the giblets, the gizzards and necks, an excellent starter that we call alicot." (from Simin Palay, The Cuisine of the Béarn).

Heads

"After all there's a lot in that vegetarian fine flavour of things from the earth garlic of course it stinks after Italian organgrinders crisp of onions mushrooms truffles. Pain to the animal too. Pluck and draw fowl. Wretched brutes there at the cattlemarket waiting for the poleaxe to split their skulls open. Moo. Poor trembling calves. Meh. Staggering bob. Bubble and squeak. Butchers' buckets wobbly lights. Give us that brisket off the hook. Plup. Rawhead and bloody bones. Flayed glasseyed sheep hung from their haunches, sheepsnouts bloodypapered snivelling nosejam on sawdust. Top and lashers going out. Don't maul them pieces, young one."
James Joyce, Ulysses

Only lamb's heads are cooked and served on the bone. They are boiled, steamed, roasted or even smoked as they do them in Norway (smalahove). Calf's and pig's heads are boned and the meat (snout, ears, tongue and sometimes cheeks) is either cut up and sold separately or rolled like a roast and boiled to serve with a sauce ravigote or gribiche. Another way of preparing head meat is en fromage (head cheese or brawn) where the meats are cooked until tender, diced and left to set in their liquor. Of course, there are other ways of preparing head like in the following, extremely complicated recipe from Plumerey, published in his 1843 book l'Art de la Cuisine au XIX siecle, where he explains how to prepare tête d'agneau à la Pascaline:

"Take four sheep's heads; they should be perfectly skinned; bone them, and put them to soak, as well as the four brains and four tongues; take three lamb's livers that you will sauté with half the amount of fresh lard, fine herbs, salt, pepper and spices to make a stuffing, and twelve sheep's trotters that you will cook with the tongues; you will also cook the brains, but separately; when the tongues and brains are done, you will cut them in large cubes and, with mushrooms, you will make twelve croquettes; now take the blanched sheep's heads and fill them with the stuffing; tie them tightly; cover them with a few slices of lemon; cover them with pork fat and cook in a good casserole; have ready about twelve studded lamb's sweeetbreads; reserve the trimmings; have a sauce tournée in which you will have put two handfuls of mushrooms; you will reduce the sauce and thicken it with six egg yolks; then you will strain the four sheep's heads; untie them; arrange on a large round plate, the nose part on the outside; cut each trotter in two, put three in between each head; cover with the sauce, and arrange the twelve fried croquettes all around, the twelve sweetbreads piques and twelve bread crusts cut in the shape of crests; throw the mushrooms and sweetbread trimmings in the sauce and over the heads."

Not a recipe you are going to rush to make but it gives you a good idea of how elaborately offal was prepared in those days. 

A type of head that people do not often think of is fish head, a great delicacy in Singapore prepared in a curry sauce. The Asians are not the only ones to appreciate fish heads. The Scots were also very fond of them. I have found several recipes for dressed cod's and haddock heads filled with fish liver in The Scots' Kitchen by F. Marian McNeill. Here is a rather intriguing one for Crappit Heids, as stuffed heads are called, from the Isle of Lewis:

"Take half a dozen haddock heads and livers. Chop the livers, which must be perfectly fresh, mix them with an equal quantity of raw oatmeal, add pepper and salt, and bind with milk. Stuff the heads with this mixture, and boil them with the fish. The liquor makes good stock for fish soup. A similar stuffing is made with cods' livers, but the body, not the head, is stuffed, through the gullet."

Hearts

It is sad that nowadays most English, or American people for that matter, consider hearts to be dog or cat food. They may not be the finest offal but they can be used in delicious preparations and have the added advantage of being very cheap. They can be stewed, stuffed and braised or grilled. 

Intestines

"Fish intestines are cut up, cleaned, washed, boiled and eaten; boiled by themselves in water, not to be mixed with other (other parts of) fish or else with the head if the rest of the fish is dried; these intestines, fat, are the Lapps' delicacy ... "
Drake, 1918

One of the most famous uses for intestines is in andouillettes, a fat French sausage made with pig's intestines that are either grilled or shallow fried and served with mustard. Andouille sounds similar but is quite different. It is made with intestines but in a very large sausage and is smoked for two months, hence the black skin. It is then tied, cooked in water or broth and dried. It is generally eaten cold, thinly sliced, but it can also be served hot after having been simmered in broth. 

In Italy, intestines from milk-fed calf or lamb are used to make pajata, a Roman speciality, or brochettes. In Sicily the brochettes are grilled and sold on the streets – stigghiole is what you need to ask for if you want to try them. Similar versions of intestines brochettes exist with slight variations in Sardinia and Umbria. The South Americans have their own version which they call chinchulines while the Turks and Greeks wrap skewered lamb's lights with intestines and grill them to produce kokoreç or kokoretsi.

The Lebanese fill intestines with rice, meat and chickpeas to cook alongside stuffed tripe and the Chinese cut them up to cook in a sauce and serve for dim sum. The English, Irish and Americans have their own chitterlings or chitlins, fried or grilled intestines, while the Eskimos eat fish intestines. These were also common food, in northern Sweden where the intestines of sea trout were boiled and considered to be full of goodness. And, of course, pig's or ox intestines are also used as casings for all kinds of sausages. 

Kidneys

"Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine."
James Joyce, Ulysses

The finest kidneys are those from calves although both lamb's and pig's kidneys are also very good. The latter need soaking to rid them of the strong smell and taste. You can buy kidneys with or without their protective fat. I generally ask my butcher to remove the fat and the core. Whale kidneys are also eaten straight after the catch, boiled in salted water.

Liver

"I am weary of whales. I have eaten whale boiled, fried and minced; the liver, heart, brains, and kidneys of young whale, and best of all, head fin boiled, cut in thin slices when cold, and eaten with thin slices of dry bread. It has a firm white substance and a pleasant nutty flavour."
Elizabeth Taylor, 1890's

The smooth, buttery texture of liver, be it that of calf, duck, goose, monkfish or cod to name but a few is one of the ultimate delicacies. The finest of red livers is undoubtedly that of calf, although both lamb's and pig's are also excellent. Chicken livers are in a league of their own, softer in texture and totally delicious provided that, first, they come from an organic bird and, second, that they are not overcooked. In fact, except for pig's, no liver should be cooked beyond pink, otherwise the texture changes from melting to rubbery. Liver can also be smoked.

In the Tarn, they marinate pig's liver in a highly seasoned marinade before tying it like a rôti and smoking it. The liver is thinly sliced, sautéed in oil and the pan deglazed with a little vinegar to provide a sauce. In Alsace, people mix chopped calf's liver with chopped onion, parsley and a little fine semolina to make big quenelles. The quenelles are poached in a white consommé and served with a beurre noisette.

The best-known of white livers is foie gras, either duck's or goose. I prefer duck's foie gras. The liver is smaller and somewhat less fatty. The Japanese have their own "foie gras", that of monkfish (ankimo) although, technically, it is not really foie gras as the fish is not fattened artificially and the texture is closer to that of roe than liver. Ankimo is generally steamed and served cold with ponzu (the juice of citric fruit) and chopped spring onions. I found monkfish liver in the fish markets in Spain. You can buy it separately or attached to the head. I tried it a la plancha on the advice of the fishmonger and steamed à la japonaise. The latter was definitely the better way to prepare it. I also found canned cod's liver in Spain which was melting and delicious, and I assume healthy as it was preserved in its own oil.

Lungs

Lungs are mainly used in sausage making. They are my least favourite offal. They have a spongy texture and are very red when raw but turn a rather off-putting grey colour as soon as they start cooking. The Larousse Gastronomique recommends beating the mou (lungs in French) to tenderise them.  

Marrow

There are two kinds of marrow, bone marrow, from the shin of beef or calf and spinal marrow which is part of the nervous system and has a charming name in French: amourettes (little loves, a name that is also used for testicles). Bone marrow can be used in several different ways. It can be extracted and poached to serve on toast or on steak; or the bones can be roasted, a signature dish of Fergus Henderson at St John's restaurant in London. 

The traditional way to make risotto in Italy is by using bone marrow instead of, or together with butter or oil. Bone marrow is in fact pure fat and will melt if left long enough on the heat.

Spinal marrow is quite different, more like brain than marrow from the shin bone; and it doesn't melt when cooked for too long. Instead it hardens and turns rubbery. Before BSE, lamb's spinal marrow was a mainstay of the mezze menu in Lebanese restaurants. It was poached and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. Both texture and taste are delicate but, because of BSE, you cannot get hold of it here any longer. 

Palates

Palates were very popular in the past. There are several recipes for them, in the Larousse Gastronomique, in Hannah Glasse and in many other old cookbooks. They are no longer used today but if you were to find them, this is how to prepare them. Soak them first then boil until tender in a water and flour mixture so that they remain white. Once they are cooked, peel and serve with a sauce ravigote or gribiche. Sometimes you do get a piece of palate with tête de veau in French restaurants. More often than not, it is not peeled and has a most unpleasant gritty feel, a little like the skin of tongues. 

Spleen

"But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! ...
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ."
Shakespeare, Hamlet II.ii.554-558, 570-571

Spleen is not used widely except possibly in sausage making. However, there are countries where it is appreciated. The Sicilians have a spleen sandwich, pani cu i meuza or put more simply milza, which is sold on the street. The sliced spleen and other bits of offal like lungs, etc. are fried in animal fat in large metal pans and stuffed into buns with ricotta cheese. 

I can't say it is one of the most appetising sandwiches I have ever had but many Sicilians are very keen on them. This is not to say that I don't like spleen. In fact, one of my all-time favourite dishes is t'hal (a Lebanese spleen dish) where the spleen is stuffed with garlic and coriander and braised in vinegar. Gorgeous.

Sweetbreads

There are two types of calf's sweetbreads, the gangly ones that come from the throat and the round, nicely shaped ones, called pomme de ris in French, that come from around the heart. The neck sweetbread is the thymus gland, and the heart or belly sweetbread is the pancreas. The thymus gland shrinks in size after puberty, but does not disappear. Calf's sweetbreads are finer than those from sheep. Depending on how bloody they are when you buy them, you may need to soak them first, until they become white. Then poach and press down (only calf's) to flatten them. After this they are ready to be prepared in all kinds of different ways, simply dipped in flour and fried, braised, grilled, baked, cooked in pastry, etc. Sometimes calf's sweetbreads are spiked with cubes of fat, truffles, tongue or ham. 

Tail

There are two kinds of tails, the bony ones from the ox and pig that have rich meat on them or the fatty ones from the fat-tail sheep that have no bone and are highly valued in the Arab world. Oxtails and pig's tails are cooked in stews, while the fat from the fat-tail sheep is eaten raw, diced very small, with raw liver or used in cooking instead of butter or ghee to impart a rich, special flavour to stews and other dishes. Oxtail and pig's tails need long, slow cooking until the rich, juicy meat falls off the bone. 

Testicles (Fries)

Testicles are a part of the fifth quarter that most people reject outright, simply because of what they are. If they only knew how delicious the taste is and what a delicate, melting texture testicles have, they wouldn't be so hasty in their rejection. Testicles need to be peeled before cooking but the butcher will generally do that for you. There is no need for any special preparation and by far the best way to cook them is to dip them in seasoned flour and gently fry them in butter until golden, adding a squeeze of lemon juice just before they are ready. It is very important not to overcook them as they will lose their velvety texture and become hard and rubbery.

In France, testicles are poached before frying but I don't think this is necessary. In Iceland, ram's testicles are preserved in sour whey, while in Japan, whale testicles are boiled and served with a vinegar sauce. I prefer lamb's testicles to those of bull but there isn't that much in it except for the size. I haven't tried cock's or capon's testicles, known as rognons blancs (white kidneys) in France, but they are also highly prized. 

Because of the sexual connotation, testicles are almost always referred to by a different name except in the Arab world where they are simply called balls of sheep. The Italians call them gioielli (jewels) or animelle, while the French alternate between les joyeuses (the happy ones, in the feminine, and I guess one can understand why), animelles or amourettes (darling ones or little loves, confirming the opinion that the French know how to live). Amourettes is also the name given to spinal marrow. The Americans, puritanical as ever, refer to them as prairie or mountain oysters, also as Montana tendergroins, cowboy caviar, swinging beef, and calf fries (the latter two showing a less puritanical streak). Calf's testicles are reputed to be a favourite of former US president George W Bush, and were apparently a staple on the menu when he was governor in Texas. 

Tongues

Tongues, ox or calf's, are sold either fresh or cured. Lamb's tongues are only used fresh as are ducks' and goose, the latter two being great favourites of the Chinese. If used fresh, ox, calf's and lamb's tongues need to be soaked then boiled to rid them of the blood and then peeled. Ducks' tongues have a funny little bone inside them and those of geese need some preparation before they are ready for use. Whale tongues were also appreciated. There are several references to whale tongues being eaten in the middle ages, amongst them an account by the French surgeon, Ambroise Paré (1517-90), describing a whaling expedition off the Atlantic coast of France. Two bundles of whale tongues were then presented to King Charles IX and his mother Catherine de Medici – Paré describes the tongue as tender and delicious.

Tripe

"Till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst With suckt and glutted offal." 
Milton, Paradise Lost X. 633

Ox tripe has four distinct sections, the four stomachs: honeycomb (bonnet in French), reed tripe (caillette), bible tripe (feuillet) and thick seam (panse). Honeycomb and thick seam are usually sold pre-cooked, often bleached. It's best to avoid bleached tripe as much of the flavour and texture will have disappeared in the process. Reed and bible tripe are hardly ever pre-cooked and need thorough cleaning before cooking. In fact, all tripe unless pre-cooked needs lengthy washing before use. The four types are needed for making tripes à la mode de Caen, one of the most famous French tripe dishes, otherwise honeycomb or thick seam will do. Another famous French tripe dish is the tablier de sapeur, a speciality from Lyon, where large squares of cooked thick seam tripe are marinated in white wine, lemon juice and mustard, then dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried.

Pig's and lamb's stomachs are obviously much smaller than calf's or ox and do not have the reed or bible section. The tripe itself is a lot thinner and more suitable for filling. William the conqueror loved tripe cooked in the juice of Neustrie apples and Rabelais' Gargantua was conceived after his mother, Gargamelle, had eaten a large plate of gaudebillaux, the tripe of coireaux beef (fattened from when they were born on their mothers' milk or in fields where the grass grew twice a year). 

Another kind of tripe that many people are unaware of is fish tripe. Salted cod's tripe is a great delicacy in Barcelona while other dried fish tripe is used in Thailand and in China to make soup. 

Udder

"Boil sow's udders and cut into pieces. Add some pike meat which has previously been ground in a mortar, minced chicken, raw eggs and oil. Mix together and season with pepper. Moisten with garum and wine and add a few raisins. Cook in an earthenware pot and once done, transfer the stuffing to which you will have added becfigues (a little bird found in abundance in the south of France, also known as béguinette), peppercorns and pine nuts to another pot that has already been lined with pastry. Cover the filling with a layer of pastry and bake in the oven."
Apicius

There are two places I know of where you can try udder. One is Jame' el Fna in Marrakesh, the world-famous square with its ambulant cook-stalls, set up every evening as the sun sets. The cooks are grouped by speciality with an offal corner where the vendors sell boiled sheep's heads and other offal including udder. The other place is a café / restaurant in Madrid that specialises in frying offal off-cuts, if there is such a thing. There I had a mixed fry-up of the glands that line the intestines (moist and tasty), udder (dry and bland), spleen (so-so) and even trachial tubes (pleasantly crunchy). The fat in the huge frying pans was rendered from the lining of the stomach, intestines, heart and other bits. This all-out offal meal has been my most extreme offal experience to date. 

I would not go so far as to say that it was exquisite but it was certainly memorable, both for me and for my Spanish friend, Alicia Rios, a wonderful food performance artist who found the place for me and took me there. We are both intrepid eaters but after the meal, we knew we would not be rushing back 
to that place. The Madrilenos, on the other hand, seemed to be sold on it. The place was heaving when we ate there.

This is an extract from Offal: the fifth quarter by Anissa Helou with photographs by Mike Cooper (Absolute Press, £25). Order a copy for £20 from the Guardian bookshop

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