Jennifer McLagan - Odd bits : how to cook the rest of the animal

Disclaimer: Some of the recipes in this book include raw eggs, meat, or fish. When these foods are consumed raw, there is always the risk that bacteria, which is killed by proper cooking, may be present. For this reason, when serving these foods raw, always buy certified salmonella-free eggs and the freshest meat and fish available from a reliable grocer, storing them in the refrigerator until they are served. Because of the health risks associated with the consumption of bacteria that can be present in raw eggs, meat, and fish, these foods should not be consumed by infants, small children, pregnant women, the elderly, or any persons who may be immunocompromised. The author and publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects that may result from the use or application of the recipes and information contained in this book.

Copyright 2011 by Jennifer McLagan
Photographs copyright 2011 by Leigh Beisch

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Published in Canada by HarperCollins Canada

Rillons, Rillettes from COLLECTED POEMS 19432004, copyright 2004 by Richard Wilbur, reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McLagan, Jennifer.
Oddbits : how to cook the rest of the animal / by Jennifer McLagan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-1-60774-075-9
1. Cooking (Variety meats) I. Title.
TX749.5.V37M35 2011
641.36dc22
2011011575

Cover design by Betsy Stromberg
Food styling by Dan Becker
Food styling assistance by Emily Garland
Prop styling by Sara Slavin

v3.1

For my mother, Claudine, who, with her Sunday night dinners,
unknowingly planted the idea for this book.

People who feel that a lambs cheek is gross and vulgar when a chop is not are like the medieval philosophers who argued about such hairsplitting problems as how many angels could dance on the point of a pin. If you have these prejudices, ask yourself if they are not built on what you may have been taught when you were young and unthinking, and then if you can, teach yourself to enjoy some of the parts of an animal that are not commonly prepared.
M. F. K. FISHER

Just what do I mean by this strange title, Odd Bits? Most of the meat we eatthe tenderloins, the racks, the steaks, the legs, and the chopsis only a small percentage of the animal carcass. These prime cuts, once expensive and special, are now, thanks to industrialized farming, very cheap. Simple to cook, these familiar and common everyday cuts fill our butcher shops and supermarkets. What were once uncommon and prestigious pieces of meat have become banal and boring.

Well, Im not interested in these cuts and you wont find them here. This book is about the rest of the animal: the pieces we once enjoyed and relished but no longer bother with. Unfamiliar and odd, they have become the odd bits. I am not talking just about offal or variety meats. Yes, I am interested in the strange wobbly bits and theyre here, but alas these pieces are not the only animal cuts considered odd today. So, I chose this term because it is broader and more inclusive. Odd Bits covers everything from tongues to tails, cheeks to shanks, brains to bellies. They are all animal parts we have forgotten not only how to cook but also how to eat. This book, Odd Bits, is an introduction to cooking and eating the rest of the animal.

Today we are so removed from the sources of our food that we rarely think of meat coming from living, breathing animals. The steaks, chops, and ground meat we buy shrink-wrapped in the supermarket give no hint of the animals they came from, while an ear, a kidney, or a tail all remind us very tangibly that they were once parts of a living creature. These pieces of the animal now seem odd and strange to us, something we dont want to eat. But why is it stranger to eat a beef cheek than a cows back? Why do people chew a rib chop but recoil at roasted marrow bones? Why do we happily eat lamb chops but overlook lamb neck? And why do so many people know, without a doubt, that they hate brains? Should we care that these odd bits go unappreciated? Isnt there more than enough cheap meat for us to buy and eat?

As a percentage of our income, food is cheaper than it has been at any time in the pastespecially meat. We spend much less of our income on our food than our grandparents, and we spend less time sourcing it, cooking it, and eating it. The application of industrial principles and economies of scale to farming have lowered the cost of our food dramatically. (Still, while factory farming has reduced the cost of meat, it hasnt improved its quality or taste.)

However, dirt-cheap food is not sustainable and, in the long term, it can only be a blip on our culinary landscape. We are already rethinking our relationship to our food and recognizing that there are other costs incurred with this type of farming: polluted and infertile land, shrinking biodiversity, and, worst of all, wretched treatment of animals. Those of us who care about what we eatand we should all caremust demand that the animals we eat are raised naturally and humanely, treated with respect in both life and death. This is the only way a thinking carnivore can continue to eat meat.

Scared? Intimidated? Grossed out? Put off by memories of Mom, or some long ago lunch lady, coming at you with a slab of ineptly and indifferently fried liver, or by some comedians jokes about haggis? Does the phrase Eat IT! Its good for you! still strike fear into your heart?

ANTHONY BOURDAIN

Yes, the meat produced this way costs more, but that in turn has its benefits. By paying the true costs of production, we no longer rely on factory farms that pollute the countryside, the animals can be well cared for, and we will have better quality and better tasting meat. Paying more for our meat is good in other ways. If our meat costs more, we will not waste it, well take more care when we cook it, and we will eat less of ita good thing because most of us eat too much meat. My time in France has shown me that where meat is more expensive, portions are smaller and waste is less. I also see the way meat is handled and displayed therewith care and respect. More expensive meat forces us to look beyond those now familiar prime cuts for less popular and often cheaper cuts, the odd bitsit encourages us to cook and