Variety Meat Terms & Definitions

Variety meats, or 'offal', are the internal organs and external parts of the animal that are
edible. Variety meats is a term used often in the US and offal is used in the UK. The
Larousse Gastronomique, 1988 edition, uses two categories for variety meats: white
offal or abat blanc (marrow, brain, feet, stomach, sweetbreads and testicles) and red
offal or abat rouge (heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, tongue and lungs). Two professional
cooking books, The New Professional Chef and Professional Cooking, divide offal by
glandular or organ meats, and muscle meats. Terms and definitions for variety meats or
offal are sometimes location defined, for example animelles are testicles in French, but
they are known as 'fries' or 'oysters' in the US. Modern cookbooks have relatively little
information and recipes for these animal parts, but looking back to books such as The
Epicurean, the cookbook from the venerable Delmonico's restaurant, and a 1960's
edition of Larousse Gastronomique has lots of recipes for these under-utilized parts of
the animal.
Depending on culture and the animal, the variety meat parts that are used in culinary
applications include: the whole head, cock's combs, brains, ears, eyes, the muzzle, snout
and palates, cheeks, tongue, sweetbreads and other glands, belly (including stomaches,
intestines, mesentery), blood, bone and spinal marrow, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver,
speen, testicles, tails and feet. Many of these terms are described below.
Cooking some variety meats requires sometimes planning ahead combined with long,
slow methods, while others are to be handled and cooked á la minute. One variety meat
coming from different animals will yield oftentimes very different results in taste but the
cooking method can be similar. For example, veal heart is milder in flavor than a lamb's,
but lamb and calves feet can be prepared in much the same way.
Here are some basics for preparing the popular types of variety meats:
1. Liver: If whole, remove outer skin. Fresh poultry livers with gall bladders
must be carefully removed before preparing. Liver should not be prepared
in advance. Can be prepared and served alone or chopped and used in
recipes.
2. Heart: Remove the veins along with attached tissues. Wipe any clots way.
This meat is lean and tough. Can be chopped and added to other chopped
meats, or left whole prepared.
3. Kidneys: Remove fat and membranes and veins present. Can be sautéed,
grilled, or broiled.
4. Sweetbreads: Soak overnight in water set in cooler or in several changes of
fresh cold water to remove blood, which can darken the meat. Meat is
ready when water is clear. Blanch in water, lightly simmering for up to 10
minutes depending on animal. Place in cold water and peel off the
membranes and fat that surround the meat. Place the sweetbreads on a
sheet pan lined with cheesecloth, and set a weight over it (like another
sheet pan with weights set on top like cans of food). Doing this helps to
firm the sweetbreads. They will firm up after a couple of hours. They are
often served sautéed or pan fried.
 5. Brains: Fragile in nature. As with sweetbreads, soak in several changes of
fresh, cold water until water is clear. Remove membranes. Most recipes
require them to be poached in court boullion before preparation.
6. Tongue: Available fresh or cured, also smoked. Simmer in water with
onions, carrots and desired flavorings, allow to cool then trim gristle,
bones if attached, and excess fat. Lastly peel off the skin.
7. Fries: When fresh, look for ones that are plump and firm. Remove skin
and as with sweetbreads, soak in several changes of water until water is
clear. Softly simmer in lightly salted water to firm them and to remove
excess scum.
8. Gizzards: Trim surrounding fat and connective tissues. Fresh poultry
gizzards may contain a gravel sac that needs to be removed.
9. Oxtails: Remove excess fat. If disjointing is need, be careful to cut at the
sections as the bones can splinter.
Below are terms, foreign words used and definitions for many variety meats. All
terminology listed in alphabetical order.

Amourette: Spinal marrow (usually in the case of beef or veal)

Animelles: Testicles
Bath Chaps: Pig's cheek (smoked), used as like smoked bacon
Caul Fat: Membrane from intestines (pig or sheep) with a netting look to it
Chap: Cheek or lower jaw, usually in the case of pork, see 'bath chaps'
Chitterlings: Pig's large intestines
Cock's Comb (Cockscomb): Fleshy part of the tops of heads of gallinaceans (birds
including
turkey, chicken, quails, pheasants)
Crow: See 'mesentery'
Fry or "Fries": Testicles—beef, veal, pork, lamb
Foie Gras: Enlarged livers from force-fed geese
Giblets: Poultry innards: gizzards, heart and liver
Gizzards: Stomach of a bird
Hog's Maw: Stomach of a pig
Kernels: Fat covered gland, found in veal shoulder
Lights: Lungs
Marrow: The soft center of animal bones, mostly in beef legs, as 'marrowbone'
Melt: spleen—pig or calf
Mesentery: Membrane holding together the intestines, usually in the case of calves
Miltz: Beef spleen from Kosher butchers
Museau de Boeuf: Beef muzzle (French)
Oreilles: Ears (French)
Ox: Not to be confused with the actual ox animal, ox is a term given to less choice
cuts or parts of beef, for example 'oxtail' comes from beef not from an actual ox.
Oxtails: Beef tails, also 'ox-tails'
Palais de Boeuf: Beef Palate (French)
Prairie Oysters: Testicles—beef or veal
Rocky Mountain Oysters: Testicles—beef or veal
Sow's Maw: Stomach of a pig
Sweetbreads: Thymus gland of lamb or calf (veal), (disappears when animals mature)
Tripe: Stomach: Cow, calf or lamb
Blanket Tripe: first stomach of beef or lamb, has smooth appearance
Honeycomb Tripe: second stomach of beef or lamb, has honeycomb appearance
Trotters: Feet
Vessie: Animal's bladder (French)