Organ meat is a tasty superfood.
This past week we enjoyed one of our favorite dinners: fried chicken hearts, green beans and carrots stored from our garden, homemade multigrain bread. The kids were dissappointed when the hearts were all gone. The next noon we had a yummy soup made from boiled gizzards. Perhaps my kids are wierd, but they really like that stuff. Liver is another story, but when we grind burger for ourselves we usually grind the liver in. It’s unnoticeable that way and the texture problem is eliminated. I was doing some reading in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions book. One paragraph that summarized the information she repeated in quotes from Weston A. Price and others is as follows:
“Almost all traitional cultures prize organ meats for their ability to build reserves of strenth and vitality. Organ meats are extremely rich in fat-soluble vitamins A and D, as well as essential fatty acids, important very-long-chain superunsaturated fatty acids and the whole gamut of macro and trace minerals. Wild animals eat the organs of their kill first, thus showing a wisdom superior to our own. The first solid food that native African mothers give to their babies is raw liver, which they thoughtfully chew for them. Folk wisdom throughout the world, including Europe, values brains as a food for babies and growing children….Not only does liver provide copper, zinc, iron, and vitamins A and D in abundance, but it is also a rich source of antioxidants–substances that help your own liver remove toxic substance from the body.” (p.299)
Interestingly, when Mark was in Washington he learned how to process brain and other organ meats–that is part of the delicacy prized in the hog. One disclaimer Fallon puts on organ meats, especially liver, is to get them from “clean” sources (like our pasture raised animals) so that the toxins the organs have filtered aren’t passed on. If you’re interested in trying chicken heart, liver, or gizzards, I’d be happy to share my own recipes and what cookbook ones I have.
Here’s the Nourishing Traditions book on Amazon. Check it out for yourself! It has great recipes and tons of helpful information about why and how to eat.