Teh One Who Knocks
11-23-2011, 04:35 PM
By Daily Mail Reporter
Jennifer McLagan doesn't necessarily want to shock readers with her new cookbook Odd Bits: How To Cook The Rest Of The Animal but she's really good at doing just that.
In the first recipe called Headcheese for the Unconvinced she explains how to shave or singe the little hairs off a pig's head before submerging it in brine with its cut-off ear and foot.
Toronto-based McLagan is an Australian-born chef, food stylist, journalist and award-winning author of Bones and Fat.
http://i.imgur.com/ejJoC.jpg
She is just as comfortable with other unfashionable dishes, including brain fritters, chocolate blood ice cream and crispy testicles.
Nose-to-tail eating is not for the faint of heart, but McLagan appeals to meat lovers' moral goodness by promoting respect for the whole animal, including the tasty odds and ends that are often discarded or destined for dog food.
McLagan spoke to Reuters from Paris, where she lives part-time, about how to get over the fear factor and why these cheaper and challenging cuts of meat are beloved by grandmothers and top chefs worldwide.
Asked if she thinks some chefs have pushed the nose-to-tail philosophy too far, McLagan believes they have.
She said: 'I don't want it to be like how can we shock people the most by serving them something, and I've had a couple meals like that cooked by proponents of this type of cooking and it's like more about shocking you than making it taste good.
http://i.imgur.com/ZbZXf.jpg
'First of all it should be about tasting good no matter what part of the animal it is.'
Reuters asked her why are North Americans the most squeamish when it comes to eating odd bits?
McLagan said: 'It is interesting because if you go back 100 years, they were eating those parts.
'I think it's two things: the rise of factory farming that made meat cheap so everyone could afford steaks and chops, which are like bulletproof to cook. Any idiot can cook a steak, right?
'And then (there was) the rise of supermarkets, so the loss of butcher stores and the loss of actually seeing animals, so a lot of people today don't like to associate meat with a dead animal.
'And these bits make them more real, like a head, or a tongue, or an ear.'
'I think if you're a meat-eater you've got to be responsible for what you're eating, so therefore you've got to make sure that your meat is humanely raised and slaughtered humanely too and so you've got to make that commitment.
'It's a contract between animals. We look after them and they provide us with milk and meat.
'So you do that and then the best thing you can do is once you kill that animal is to eat all of it, that's like a way of honouring it.
'It's almost immoral to throw parts of that animal away in any form or waste any part of it.'
http://i.imgur.com/JyONR.png
Reuters asked her Which of these less popular parts will have the best chance of becoming mainstream and which will remain rare?
She said: 'Starting with the rare ones, for sure testicles will be because only half the animals have them and there are only two and it's one of those things that is kind of fun to try one time.
'Intestines might be harder for people unless you like that kind of gutty taste. Tripe, I think, has a kind of textural problem too. They might be more difficult to convert people to.
'But I think tongue and heart and I think liver is already half-way there, I think those three will really be big.'
'It's not the flavour usually; it's the texture of things. It's like brains. Brains have a very soft, like whipped cream, kind of custardy texture. They don't really have a bizarre flavor, it's just a texture.
'So if you don't like that texture there's not much I can do. I can put it into various things like ravioli or I can make a fritter out of it.
'If you don't like it for the texture that's fine, but I think you should try it again, because I think a lot of the prejudice people have is between their ears and it's not on their palate."
Asked if there's any food that turns her off, she said: 'I'll pretty much try anything but I don't actually like, I guess, for it to be physically moving when I start to eat it.'
Jennifer McLagan doesn't necessarily want to shock readers with her new cookbook Odd Bits: How To Cook The Rest Of The Animal but she's really good at doing just that.
In the first recipe called Headcheese for the Unconvinced she explains how to shave or singe the little hairs off a pig's head before submerging it in brine with its cut-off ear and foot.
Toronto-based McLagan is an Australian-born chef, food stylist, journalist and award-winning author of Bones and Fat.
http://i.imgur.com/ejJoC.jpg
She is just as comfortable with other unfashionable dishes, including brain fritters, chocolate blood ice cream and crispy testicles.
Nose-to-tail eating is not for the faint of heart, but McLagan appeals to meat lovers' moral goodness by promoting respect for the whole animal, including the tasty odds and ends that are often discarded or destined for dog food.
McLagan spoke to Reuters from Paris, where she lives part-time, about how to get over the fear factor and why these cheaper and challenging cuts of meat are beloved by grandmothers and top chefs worldwide.
Asked if she thinks some chefs have pushed the nose-to-tail philosophy too far, McLagan believes they have.
She said: 'I don't want it to be like how can we shock people the most by serving them something, and I've had a couple meals like that cooked by proponents of this type of cooking and it's like more about shocking you than making it taste good.
http://i.imgur.com/ZbZXf.jpg
'First of all it should be about tasting good no matter what part of the animal it is.'
Reuters asked her why are North Americans the most squeamish when it comes to eating odd bits?
McLagan said: 'It is interesting because if you go back 100 years, they were eating those parts.
'I think it's two things: the rise of factory farming that made meat cheap so everyone could afford steaks and chops, which are like bulletproof to cook. Any idiot can cook a steak, right?
'And then (there was) the rise of supermarkets, so the loss of butcher stores and the loss of actually seeing animals, so a lot of people today don't like to associate meat with a dead animal.
'And these bits make them more real, like a head, or a tongue, or an ear.'
'I think if you're a meat-eater you've got to be responsible for what you're eating, so therefore you've got to make sure that your meat is humanely raised and slaughtered humanely too and so you've got to make that commitment.
'It's a contract between animals. We look after them and they provide us with milk and meat.
'So you do that and then the best thing you can do is once you kill that animal is to eat all of it, that's like a way of honouring it.
'It's almost immoral to throw parts of that animal away in any form or waste any part of it.'
http://i.imgur.com/JyONR.png
Reuters asked her Which of these less popular parts will have the best chance of becoming mainstream and which will remain rare?
She said: 'Starting with the rare ones, for sure testicles will be because only half the animals have them and there are only two and it's one of those things that is kind of fun to try one time.
'Intestines might be harder for people unless you like that kind of gutty taste. Tripe, I think, has a kind of textural problem too. They might be more difficult to convert people to.
'But I think tongue and heart and I think liver is already half-way there, I think those three will really be big.'
'It's not the flavour usually; it's the texture of things. It's like brains. Brains have a very soft, like whipped cream, kind of custardy texture. They don't really have a bizarre flavor, it's just a texture.
'So if you don't like that texture there's not much I can do. I can put it into various things like ravioli or I can make a fritter out of it.
'If you don't like it for the texture that's fine, but I think you should try it again, because I think a lot of the prejudice people have is between their ears and it's not on their palate."
Asked if there's any food that turns her off, she said: 'I'll pretty much try anything but I don't actually like, I guess, for it to be physically moving when I start to eat it.'