Offal Good: Cooking from the Heart, with Guts

by Chris Cosentino, Michael Harlan Turkell

Chris Cosentino, executive chef of Cockscomb in San Francisco, is known nationally for his "odds & ends" meat offerings. In Offal Good, Cosentino shares 140 recipes that show that offal cuts are arguably the best parts of the animal to cook and enjoy.Offal Good is a comprehensive guide to nose to tail cooking that shows the reader not only how to prepare these cuts but also how to let creativity fly, with recipes that bring out the incredible flavors and textural qualities of pork, beef, chicken, lamb, and duck offal."

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published August 29, 2017

Reviews

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is load of Tripe
It's also every other disgusting forgotten tasty things modern people have forgotten about its Tripe in belly of a cow, liver or trotters, brain, tongue in jelly so many different foods that do not necessarily need to be wasted. After good sausage is incase in pig intestine.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

These days, it's not often that I read a "chef-y" food book and do much more than make a note of a recipe or two that sound interesting to make, one day, some day, or that give me inspiration to try something new. Most of the book then gets relegated back to the electrons it came in. This is one of the first in a long while that I've added a "to be bought in hardcover form" on my next trip somewhere where that's a possibility. I want to try most of the recipes in the book, and I love the way it's written, and illustrated. The in-depth coverage of every part of the animal, and not just the usual suspects of cow and pig, makes this an offal lovers dream. Excellent!

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not finish reading this because I primarily got it from the library as research for my Unorthodox Food list, and it's a BIG BOY that, as factually interesting as it is, I don't feel like reading *every single word* in this highly illustrated book of the parts of animals most people don't like to eat (but, if they like meat, maybe should...?). Oh, I guess also it's mostly cookbook, and I generally don't read every single word of every recipe.

That said, I've mostly only had offal from when we cooked a whole duck and those bits (giblets) were included and, "Waste not, want not," and when we had group dinners at a Chinese restaurant and they ordered intestine and so on and I could try it without wasting a whole order myself. Not as disgusting as my gag reflex tells me, but not stuff I would go out of my way to eat (especially now that my diet should really avoid meat in the first place).

Oh, I guess I've had oxtail, too, though it feels like a lot more trouble than is worth. I know folks who were all about oxtail as a cheap treat who are MAD the price for it suddenly skyrocketed when people who otherwise turned their noses up at it realised it was good after all. (My brother says to blame international markets, since they're the ones buying it all up.)

Things I didn't know:
- Duck tongues have a bone
- Rabbits are considered "poultry" by the USDA
- A can of Rose's pork brains in milk contains more than ten times the recommended daily allowance of cholesterol(!!!)
- Sweetbreads are the thymus gland and pancreas
- Lungs are airy (haha) like angel food cake
- Each of a cow's four stomachs are completely different, texturally and taste-wise (makes sense but I never bothered finding out before that there was a difference)

- [Actually, I know about bone marrow being good, though it's a pain to get and make specifically]
- [Actually, I knew about chicken butts (tails) being tasty since I generally eat literally anything I can off a whole rotisserie chicken, and the tail bit is a delightful treat]
- I knew about Rocky Mountain oysters, but I guess I misheard what they called them in Funny Farm (lamb fries).

Good read for adventurous gourmets, though I think I don't trust my own cooking enough to try these recipes myself to make them palatable (specifically with the hard to chew items like tendons and feet, which are extra bad for my achy jaw).

[Nick Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about an unfortunately forgotten foodgroup: offal. Delicious recipes, wonderful descriptions about what why and how on what animal type (cow, pig, sheep, game, fowl). One of the most complete books on the subject. Fortunately with the whole nose to tail trend offal is coming back into fashion, not for nothing that Michel Roux jr. recently published a recipe book les Abats. I'd prefer this book.

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderfully produced book but pretentious recipes. It will be hard enough to get the offal, but you need special chef stuff like caviocavallo cheese. Where will I find that?

[Avi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Especially if you want an intro to cooking offal. But the recipes mostly aren’t that interesting or adventurous other than the fact that they incorporate offal.