briochebread

Last month a book I was reading mentioned a case where social psychologist Kurt Lewin was tasked with getting American families to eat more organ meats, aka offal. Great social psychology anecdote, and if I get around to doing a book review I'm sure I'll include it.

But also when I was reading that, I was like-- damn, I should be eating organs! It's just as good for you as regular meat, supposedly tastes just as good, and must be way cheaper. (I've also cooked a whole duck before and ended up just chucking the organs and felt so bad about it, so it's been in the back of my mind for a while....) If the housewives in those studies can make the change, so can I!

I found a cookbook focused on offal (Offal Good) and borrowed it from the library and just flipped through it and--- hnngghghgghghh, the photos of the raw cuts are sooooo 😭 GAH! I can't help but recoil from it.

This reaction is honestly embarrassing since I know there's nothing wrong with it and it's purely my cultural upbringing. (Even though my own mother would have grew up eating it...) But it's still pretty intense and it's hard to imagine right now actually cooking with it, even though I know that, like with almost everything, if I actually just do it it'll be fine.

I was thinking maybe I could try some dishes at a restaurant so I know it tastes good before I actually spend time prepping it, and looking up offal brought up a lot of articles about how it's trendy right now apparently?? (I have seen 0 evidence of this offline but who knows.) But I haven't seen any reliable options in the area, except for tripe which I am fine with but not that excited about and probably wouldn't choose to cook on my own.

My joke with ebaths was that looking at those offal pictures gives me the urge to just go vegetarian. *tries to eat more meat* *eats less instead*

But really, I still want to give it a try. Lmk if you have any favorite, easy/simple offal recipes! And/or any advice for someone trying to eat more offal!