Comments on: Liver Crudo and Broken Arrow Ranch

By: Mantonat

Mantonat — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Sorry to jump in on this so late, but a few of the comments just did not make sense to me. The use of offal in modern cooking is not white people appropriating or demeaning the cuisine of other cultures, nor should it be insulting to those who come from backgrounds where little else but offal was available. To think this way is to assume that offal is somehow inferior or less tasty than the more traditional cuts of muscle. Cosentino and those like him are showing respect to the animal by using all of it. They show respect to other cultures by bringing traditional dishes to a larger audience. I was unaware of the Sicilian fondness for cured tuna heart until I had it at Cosentino’s restaurant.
Think of it this way: there are as many kidneys in a cow as there are tenderloins. Why should the kidneys be significantly less expensive? Maybe if more people were willing to use the whole animal, there would be a little more equity in the prices of the different cuts and pieces. Consumers would then be able to choose the cuts they want based on taste preference rather than price.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Broken Arrow’s a great company. I ordered some antelope bones from them about a year back to make antelope stock.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Get over yourselves, people!

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Techie,
A quien hablas?

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

That was too much information? Maybe I’ll talk about menudo.. or machitos..

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/machito_texas_haggis

By: Techie

Techie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Wow, so it’s all “rebellion”? Obviously, “White Americans” as you put are have no culture and cuisine and must “appropriate” (did you want to write “steal”) it from others.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Ted, TMI…. that is too much information dude. As for the flavor…. Look if Cosentino can pull off the event he just did and serve tha type o’crap he did….
Exotic game shmane…. Cosentino can make the most production raised bit o’anything taste great. Capish!.

By: White On Rice Couple

White On Rice Couple — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

One of the best things about growing up and eating mom and dad’s Viet cooking was the familiar appearance of offal. As kids, they never really told us what offal was and so we grew up to enjoy the crunchy texture of garlic gizzards and the gritty-ness of stir fried liver. They just told us it was “…meat. Now eat!”. But I can empathize with those who choose not to consume offal . If it wasn’t a weekly part of my childhood meals, I’d probably never want to consider it as a food item.

By: Dervin

Dervin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Wilmita, it’s the culture of trendy white folks to co-opt and appropriate the resourcefulness of the minorities and the poor. It takes thought and creativity to get the least desired ingredients to taste good. And it takes something else to actually pay $250 to eat it.

Your lamentations, remind me of something a third generation Italian American said to me. “My Grandmother said ‘No matter how tight money got, I never served my children Polenta.’”

The move to CSA, Local Produce and craftsmanship in general is the culmination of white-American-self-hatred we are rebelling against the very system we created and benefited from for so long.

By: RI Swampyankee

RI Swampyankee — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Dervin, of course those wacky white folk appropriate the cuisines of others. We don’t have one of our own. Unless you consider tater tots and texas toast cuisine.

One of my guilty pleasures is collecting cookbooks from the 50’s and early 60’s. No wonder trendy white folks were so thin back then. They were smoking like chimneys, drinking like fish, and, for the most part, eating dreck.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Well I spoke with an elder cook from a harsh land about venison kidneys and Hanks technique for preparing it.
Basically she said there is nothing in the world that will turn off the natural smell of a kidney. Not that I want to test anything but it is what it is, a kidney.

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Being from the same neck of the woods as Broken Arrow Ranch, I feel you need to say that these “harvestees” are not the native ungulate species (the white tail deer: Odocoileus virginianus). All species harvested are from elsewhere. (Asia, Africa, etc) Exotic game ranching is big bidness in Texas.

You can’t sell native venison legally in Texas. Only exotic venison. Some of the best exotic meat I’ve ever had from the Texas Hill Country was mouflon, a type of non-wooly feral sheep from the Mediterranean area. It’s much better than aoudad, a similar, but more pungent feral sheep-critter.

My brother has a friend who is a manager at one of these exotic game ranches. He keeps an electric chain saw handy that’s lubed with corn oil to do the major splitting and quartering of the carcasses after they have hung in a “deer locker” (cold storage) for the appropriate interval.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Well, I have reconsidered. To do this I need to step outside MY BOX. Look at this in a different light. I read the links Ruhlman provided us. I think the whole event was great. Super palates tasting dishes from Cosentino and Aaron Sanchez. Oh please.
It is a chef thing. Take something Owfall and make it appealing to Rulhman and others. That takes NO SMALL MEASURE OF TALENT. Imagine if Road kill Larry Cosentino would just take on something more popularly accepted. He would hit it out of the park. No doubts there.
Also I heard a rumor that Ruhlman has this book out that will free us from the eternal recipes and show us how to apportion the right proportions to make a fine meal.
Is it a rumor? a tease? or is Ruhlman doing something along those lines???….Personally I await the publishing of tha book!

By: Wilmita

Wilmita — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

On one hand, I am deeply insulted as an American of African and Latin descent. We survived slavery and Jim Crow on the ‘leavings’ of slave owners and made them tasty.

I remember when chicken wings, backs and necks were practically free in butcher shops and supermarkets. NOW one has to scrounge for backs and necks and wings are expensive in comparison to what they were.

Pig’s feet, chicken gizzards, pig’s ears and tails the same.

Markets now charge for bones for soup!

I do not like eggs or organ meats even though I have tried to MANY times.

Now it’s ALL so vogue.

I just don’t know. It just baffles me why people would now pay so much to eat offal.

-Sincerely,

Wilmita

By: Erika

Erika — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Broken Arrow Ranch! Forget the venison…try the wild boar! I’m sure their venison is tasty, but their wild boar is incredible.

By: Garbanzo

Garbanzo — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Sounds like offal can do nothing wrong. But, as one poster pointed out, the function of several of these organs is to filter things out of the animal’s body that shouldn’t be there in the first place. And there’s dramatically different cells in organs that have different chemical compositions. Cooked offal just seems to be a matter of taste, but crudo? Sounds like we’re tempting biology. Also, how is this different from “zoo food” dinners (braised exotic animal parts, etc.) — just because we can eat something doesn’t mean we should (apologies to AB).

By: e. nassar

e. nassar — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

“Liver Curdo”..cool fancy name. Growing up in Lebanon and everytime I visit, RAW liver is always on the menu. The best is the one you get at home from the local butcher, especially the one from a younger goat. It is cut into cubes (as is the raw fillet), and served dipped in some salt and pepper. you wrap it in a small piece of bread and eat it with raw sweet onions. No ‘Mezze’ spread would be complete without it. Some people , but not me, enjoyed raw fresh liver for breakfast!! It is not odd or weird, it’s just food.

By: Bob Gercak

Bob Gercak — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I wasn’t entirely happy with the word “stunt” when I wrote it, which is why it’s in scare quotes, but I’m not sure what other word would be more appropriate. That one course seemed so out of character with the tone of the evening. It was as if we were served eight dishes to prove how normal and mainstream offal could be if diners were a bit more open-minded, and one dish to showcase how very alien offal can seem.

It was the only course that began with an exhortation from Chef Cosentino to “try just one bite”. It was the only course that ended with a “yay or nay” show of hands. Nothing else served came close to the level of far-outness provided by the liver crudo.

I hope that my comments aren’t misinterpreted as a complaint – I was very pleased to have the opportunity to try this dish.

It was a wonderful and memorable evening. Thanks again to all involved in making it happen.

BTW, any chance of this becoming a recurring event?

By: Courtney

Courtney — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I had liver sashimi the last time I was in Japan. It was just thinly sliced beef liver, thinly sliced white onion, and a sesame vinaigrette. It was suprisingly delicious.

By: Darcie

Darcie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I would have liked to try the heart dish – I “heart” heart. But I’m not too keen on the filtering organs, so while I would have tried the liver, I probably would have been one of those who couldn’t really get into it. Thanks for the update.