ORGAN meats such as the heart, lungs, kidney, and liver have fallen out of fashion, save for in dishes such as in sisig (pig’s face and brains, boiled, chopped, then grilled and served on a sizzling plate); or in bopis (sauteed lungs and heart). While people can pretend the steaks and cubes on their plates were never alive, organs look all too real, which might turn off some diners.
Organs, however, are nutrient-dense. They’re packed with iron, several minerals and vitamins. They also make the animal’s death a worthier sacrifice: the pig or cow might have been killed for steaks and chops, and the rest of its body thrown away or processed for animal feed. By consuming organ meats, no part of the animal would be aimlessly wasted. They’re also cheaper; a very important factor with price instability during this pandemic.
A study from the American Chemical Society Publications called “Efficiency and Carbon Footprint of the German Meat Supply Chain,” says “While diet structure change (either reducing the meat consumption or substituting meat by edible offal) showed the highest emissions reduction potential, eliminating meat waste in retailing and consumption and byproducts generation in slaughtering and processing were found to have profound effect on emissions reduction as well. The rendering of meat byproducts and waste treatment were modeled in detail, adding up to a net environmental benefit of about 5% of the entire supply chain Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.” So by substituting organ meats for muscle meats, you’re actually helping the environment.
All noble reasons, but not one of the reasons why I purchased the heart of a pig from an online butcher.
“Just at that moment a young wild boar came running by, so the huntsman caught and killed it, and taking out its heart, he brought it to the queen for a token. And it was salted and cooked, and the wicked woman ate it up, thinking that there was an end of Snow White.”
This was taken from the original English translation of “Snow White,” itself a German fairy tale called Schneewittchen. I’ve often wondered how it felt for the queen to consume the heart of a pig and convince herself that she had eaten the heart of “The Fairest of Them All.” Let me tell you what the queen might have tasted. First, I cut up the heart lengthwise, removed the major blood vessels and the fat; then cut it into cubes. I then salted it, then grilled it. It had this slightly gamey flavor usually associated with organ meats. It had a pretty good chew; not as tough as one might expect, and was very, very juicy. — Joseph L. Garcia
