boxcarguy07's Organ Meat Review Thread

[boxcarguy07]

Hello all!
I thought maybe this could be useful for some people, but it not, then at least entertaining for myself 

I just got in a shipment of quite a few different organ meats so I thought I would post my experiences with them as I try them.
If this is more appropriate for the "Journal" sub-forum, by all means, would a moderator please move it there?

Anyways, here we go!


BEEF LIVER:

This was my first organ meat I've ever tried.
I ate the first bite without much hesitation. The flavor was sooo very interesting, like nothing I've ever experienced. I actually laughed out loud because of the newness of the flavor. It is quite bitter, and has a very prominent aftertaste that you can feel as you breathe out your nose. It is very slippery and juicy.
By the middle of it, I was growing tired of the taste. The texture was not that bad though.
However, by the end of it, I kind of enjoyed it. I liked sucking the flavory juices out of it and then chewing what was left.
It took a couple times eating this to really get used to it, but now it's like nothing at all to eat it. The first time I ate it I ate very small bites because larger bites were just too much, but now I can eat large bites no problem.

LAMB KIDNEY:

I'm just polishing off these right now.
This time I laughed out loud prior to even tasting it, just because it seemed quite absurd to my still-new-to-RAF brain that I was actually going to eat this. Plus they looked funny. They were "rose-bud cut", which makes sense when you look at them. They are actually quite pretty. Dark purple which fades to a lighter purple in the center, it actually did kind of resemble a flower.
All in all it was pretty good!
Salty and sweet tasting, which quickly dissipates into a bitter aftertaste which is akin to to raw beef liver but not as strong, but longer lasting perhaps.
It is pretty gelatinous in texture, but kind of "crumbles" as you chew it, and it becomes kind of a liquid the more you chew, which mixes nicely with the bit of fat that surrounds the kidney.


...more to come as I eat 'em!

[goodsamaritan]

The raw goat kidneys I get taste great!
Highly recommended.

The raw goat liver I get has strong flavor.  Not as wonderful as the kidneys, but it has its own unique taste.

The raw chicken liver I get tastes great too.  So much different from the goat's.

Of course, the little finger sized fish I eat come with all its innards and head.  We call them dilis.

[TylerDurden]

I love raw goat but it means going across town to get it, which is rare(I can only get the muscle-meat as obtaining the organ-meats would require me to live locally and visit the market regularly etc. to make orders).

[boxcarguy07]

Oooookay, entry two.
Since my first post I've tried two more organs... Raw lamb heart and raw beef spleen. Here we go:


RAW LAMB HEART:

It's true what I've read, heart is very similar to muscle meat. The flavor is like muscle meat, and the texture is more liver-like than muscle meat, but still mostly muscle-like. It was very soft and tender. There was a good amoutn of (what I'm assuming was) fat on the outside of it, which is where all the veins were. I was expecting the veins to be elastic-like and very hard to chew, but they were actually very crunchy. Or rather, they had little crunchy "bits" in or around them. I have no idea what these were, but they were the only unpleasant part of the heart. A very good organ.


BEEF SPLEEN.

I'm eating this right now... what can I say?

Positives... 1. I'm sure this is very healthy for me.
                2. Not much else

First of all, this is very very hard to cut, and impossible to get a fork into. I dare not eat it with my hands for it is extremely messy. It is very very hard to chew. In fact I think I've injured my eye with the amount of intense chewing I've done so far, and I'm only on the third bite! 
The flavor isn't really bad or strong, but there's something kind of "ugh" about it. I can tell I'm making some nasty faces as I'm chewing this.
...
Eh, now that I'm getting into the groove of this thing, it's really not *that* bad.... it is taking FOREVER to eat though. Definitely not something you want to have to eat when you have somewhere to be anytime soon.
I'd like to say that this would have been my last experiment with the beef spleen for a long time, but the things are so danged big the one I just thawed is going to last me another two days after this one.
And I'm pretty sure I have another one or two in the freezer as well.

On a side note, I'm dog-sitting for a lady right now, and her dog seems to like the spleen. I put it out on the counter to defrost. I thought it was out of reach for the dog, and I went to take a shower. When I came back, I found the spleen on the floor (it still was wrapped in plastic thank God!). The dog had grabbed the package and tried to get to it.
Thankfully it didn't chew through the plastic and the spleen was unharmed 

[Satya]

On a side note, I'm dog-sitting for a lady right now, and her dog seems to like the spleen. I put it out on the counter to defrost. I thought it was out of reach for the dog, and I went to take a shower. When I came back, I found the spleen on the floor (it still was wrapped in plastic thank God!). The dog had grabbed the package and tried to get to it.
Thankfully it didn't chew through the plastic and the spleen was unharmed 

That is so funny!  But maybe it would have been better if the dog had gotten it, eh (without the plastic, of course)?  I have spleen in the freezer, and it has been there over 6 months.  Maybe my dog will get it.

I suppose meats can be tenderized by marinating. Maybe there is another way?   

[boxcarguy07]

LOL 

Well, the thing is, it didn't seem like the problem was lack of tenderness. The inside of the spleen was almost like a liquid... kind of like jello that was left out too long. But there was a VERY thin outer membrane surrounding the whole thing, and that's what was so difficult to cut/chew/etc. It's weird considering how thin it was that it gave such a problem.

However, I think I must get used to organ meats quite quickly. Like I said, after a few bites it wasn't that bad anymore. And by the end it wasn't really bad at all. I'm not dreading eating more tomorrow. Making sure that it's completely room temperature kind of cuts down on the "gross" factor! I'll take it out of the fridge tomorrow morning before I hit the gym and then eat it after I get back.

[boxcarguy07]

So, an update with me vs. spleen vs. dog.

I was eating another portion today, and some fell on my white shorts that I'm wearing which left a nice, bloody stain. I promptly got up to get some hydrogen peroxide on there to get the stain out.
Now, at home we have two very small dogs. This dog that I'm sitting is much bigger. I'm not used to that. Normally, a plate left up on a desk would be unreachable to the local canine companion. Not here. I realized what I had done and ran back to the desk only to see an empty plate, with the rest of the spleen (which was most of it) on the floor with the dog standing next to it.

Oh man! My mistake... at least i didn't have to eat it 
But what a waste

[Sully]

Never tried organs yet...i can't WAAAAIT!