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Offal
Offal (/ˈɒfəl, ˈɔːfəl/), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the internal organs of a butchered animal. Offal may also refer to the by-products of milled grains, such as corn or wheat.
Some cultures strongly consider offal consumption to be taboo, while others use it as part of their everyday food, such as lunch meats, or, in many instances, as delicacies. Certain offal dishes—including foie gras and pâté—are often regarded as gourmet food in the culinary arts. Others remain part of traditional regional cuisine and are consumed especially during holidays; some examples are sweetbread, Jewish chopped liver, Scottish haggis, U.S. chitterlings, and Mexican menudo. Intestines are traditionally used as casing for sausages.
Depending on the context, offal may refer only to those parts of an animal carcass discarded after butchering or skinning. Offal not used directly for human or animal consumption is often processed in a rendering plant, producing material that is used for fertilizer or fuel; in some cases, it may be added to commercially produced pet food.[citation needed] In earlier times, mobs sometimes threw offal and other rubbish at condemned criminals as a show of public disapproval.
The word shares its etymology with several Germanic words: West Frisian ôffal, German Abfall (Offall in some Western German dialects and Luxembourgish), afval in Dutch and Afrikaans, avfall in Norwegian and Swedish, and affald in Danish. These Germanic words all mean "garbage/rubbish" or "waste" or—literally—"off-fall", referring to that which has fallen off during butchering. However, these words are not often used to refer to food except for Afrikaans in the agglutination afvalvleis (lit. "off-fall-flesh"), which does indeed mean offal. For instance, the German word for offal is Innereien meaning innards and the Swedish word is inälvsmat literally meaning "inside-food". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word entered Middle English from Middle Dutch in the form afval, derived from af (off) and vallen (to fall).
It is not related to the English word awful, which originally meant "inspiring awe," then shifted meaning to "terrifying" and then to "very bad."
Organ meat is typically referred to with established terms used for other edible parts of the animal, such that the heart of a cow would be known as beef heart, while that of a pig would be known as pork heart.
In some parts of Europe, scrotum, brain, chitterlings (pig's small intestine), trotters (feet), heart, head (of pigs, calves, sheep and lamb), kidney, liver, spleen, "lights" (lung), sweetbreads (thymus or pancreas), fries (testicles), tongue, snout (nose), tripe (reticulum) and maws (stomach) from various mammals are common menu items.
In medieval times, "humble pie" (originally "umble pie") made from animal innards (especially deer) was a peasant food and is the source of the commonly used idiom "eating humble pie", although it has lost its original meaning as meat pies made from offal are no longer referred to by this name. The traditional Scottish haggis consists of a sheep's stomach stuffed with a boiled mix of liver, heart, lungs, rolled oats, and other ingredients. In the English Midlands and South Wales, faggots are made from ground or minced pig offal (mainly liver and cheek), bread, herbs, and onion wrapped in pig's caul fat.
Hub AI
Offal AI simulator
(@Offal_simulator)
Offal
Offal (/ˈɒfəl, ˈɔːfəl/), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the internal organs of a butchered animal. Offal may also refer to the by-products of milled grains, such as corn or wheat.
Some cultures strongly consider offal consumption to be taboo, while others use it as part of their everyday food, such as lunch meats, or, in many instances, as delicacies. Certain offal dishes—including foie gras and pâté—are often regarded as gourmet food in the culinary arts. Others remain part of traditional regional cuisine and are consumed especially during holidays; some examples are sweetbread, Jewish chopped liver, Scottish haggis, U.S. chitterlings, and Mexican menudo. Intestines are traditionally used as casing for sausages.
Depending on the context, offal may refer only to those parts of an animal carcass discarded after butchering or skinning. Offal not used directly for human or animal consumption is often processed in a rendering plant, producing material that is used for fertilizer or fuel; in some cases, it may be added to commercially produced pet food.[citation needed] In earlier times, mobs sometimes threw offal and other rubbish at condemned criminals as a show of public disapproval.
The word shares its etymology with several Germanic words: West Frisian ôffal, German Abfall (Offall in some Western German dialects and Luxembourgish), afval in Dutch and Afrikaans, avfall in Norwegian and Swedish, and affald in Danish. These Germanic words all mean "garbage/rubbish" or "waste" or—literally—"off-fall", referring to that which has fallen off during butchering. However, these words are not often used to refer to food except for Afrikaans in the agglutination afvalvleis (lit. "off-fall-flesh"), which does indeed mean offal. For instance, the German word for offal is Innereien meaning innards and the Swedish word is inälvsmat literally meaning "inside-food". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word entered Middle English from Middle Dutch in the form afval, derived from af (off) and vallen (to fall).
It is not related to the English word awful, which originally meant "inspiring awe," then shifted meaning to "terrifying" and then to "very bad."
Organ meat is typically referred to with established terms used for other edible parts of the animal, such that the heart of a cow would be known as beef heart, while that of a pig would be known as pork heart.
In some parts of Europe, scrotum, brain, chitterlings (pig's small intestine), trotters (feet), heart, head (of pigs, calves, sheep and lamb), kidney, liver, spleen, "lights" (lung), sweetbreads (thymus or pancreas), fries (testicles), tongue, snout (nose), tripe (reticulum) and maws (stomach) from various mammals are common menu items.
In medieval times, "humble pie" (originally "umble pie") made from animal innards (especially deer) was a peasant food and is the source of the commonly used idiom "eating humble pie", although it has lost its original meaning as meat pies made from offal are no longer referred to by this name. The traditional Scottish haggis consists of a sheep's stomach stuffed with a boiled mix of liver, heart, lungs, rolled oats, and other ingredients. In the English Midlands and South Wales, faggots are made from ground or minced pig offal (mainly liver and cheek), bread, herbs, and onion wrapped in pig's caul fat.