If you REALLY want a gourmet AND health experience, try beef heart tartare.

You can get fresh ground or chopped beef heart from better butchers. Always go organic or biodynamic, and avoid frozen.

Yes, this drives me crazy that people are being told not to eat organ meats due to the cholesterol. Such nutrient dense foods and we’re told to avoid them or not eat too much! If cholesterol actually was the bad guy it has been made out to be, then fine. But our body NEEDS it and the whole “lipid hypothesis” has never been proven and it’s a big farce. I hope you’ll take the time to read more. Don’t believe me, look into it more and see what you think.

Read through the posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2008/08/healthy-fats-oils.html

Especially the ones about cholesterol toward the bottom.

Thanks for reminding me that I should put a note about this in the post.

Kelly

What is with this Puritan fear of the new and unusual in this society?

Btw, liver isn’t bad when fried with onions, a somewhat acquired taste. Beef heart is REAALLY good though. Dont miss out!

Anna, I still have a long way to go!

Amy, how did you think to use lamb neck and where did you get it?

Shauna, Chorizo is now on my Creswick list!

Momma, I guess I shouldn’t complain about our 80’s and humidity today, huh?!

Carrie, what marinade do you use?

I love all the comments! Keep ‘em coming everyone!

But it’s definitely a “state of mind” thing. I’m much more squeamish now about supermarket meat, imagining the pathogenic bacteria that Consumer Reports and others say is endemic to supermarket meat (conventional and organic), CAFO conditions, diseased animals, additives to the feed, fast and dangerous processing plants, etc.

I needed the appreciation for the nutrition and tradition before making the leap from plastic supermarket trays to spending the afternoon cutting up, wrapping, and labeling for the freezer 40 + pounds of offal after the farm delivery.

It’s been a gradual process, taking several years. When I feel unsure, I try to remember my great-grandmother and how despite her poverty, she fed her family well well from food produced on her small polycultural (that’s the trendy term) farm, and nothing went to waste. She even saved all her fat to make soap.

Watching Survivorman on TV with my son, I realize that modern Westernized humans no longer have the vast knowledge of how to survive in nature anymore that our stone age ancestors needed and exploited to spread across the globe into many climates. While I have no illusions that I know nearly enough to survive in the wild on my own (or with anyone I know, for that matter), getting my hands on a bison or steer heart, 11 pound beef liver, kidney (strangely, not “kidney” shaped, but sheep and goat kidneys are), etc. does reassure me that I’m not quite as removed from my primal roots as I was just a few years ago.

Hard to believe I once bought and prepared only boneless meat cuts because anything else had too much “waste” and was too much “work”. LOL!