Grilled cheese w/ ketchup: moral imperative, or mortal sin?

[Darrell]

Our father ate such things... one of my most horrifying memories as a small child is opening the fridge late at night, looking for a snack, only to see a HUGE TONGUE sitting on a plate going BLEEEUUUHHHHHH.

[308Mike]

Maybe liver is good if cooked right, but I had enough of it cooked wrong that I don't care if I EVER have it again. Kinda' like having cow brains cooked & mixed in with our scrambled eggs for breakfast. NOPE, NEVER AGAIN!! HEY!! At least *I* tried it, my brother wouldn't even put it on his fork!! LOL!!

[Cobar]

Tongue is just a muscle.

[Jeffro]

Y'all don't know what you're missing with organ meats - most of you are illogically skeeved out about the idea that you are eating organs, while you have absolutely no problem with muscle tissue. The animal it came from kinda needed 'em all.

That said, I grew up on tongue, liver, heart, head cheese, brains (mixed with scrambled eggs), oxtail (soup), hog jowl (great for flavoring, more intense than bacon) and a succession of game. My sister couldn't handle cottontail - she started bawling about eating the Easter Bunny, so Dad started calling it Persian Chicken - to no avail. She wasn't fooled.

If you eat hot dogs or bologna, you get most of this stuff anyways. And, let's not forget Rocky Mountain Oysters, God's Breaded and Deep Fried Treat, which with beer is proof that He loves us.

[308Mike]

Tongue is just a muscle.

Perhaps, but my bicep or thigh meat does NOT have taste buds on it. When I eat something, I don't want it tasting me back!! And I'd MUCH rather eat a bicep or thigh than a tongue. OTOH, the vagina has quite a bit of muscle surrounding it, and your body has sphincter muscles at a few points in the body, how would you feel about eating THOSE muscles?

I have no problem saying I'm a discriminating muscle eater. I don't eat just ANY muscle.

[Darrell]

Ever eat liver mush? Another of our father's favorites... our mom would make it occasionally for him. You boil a hunk of liver, then cut it up into shreds and toss a cup or two of corn meal in and boil it again until it's mush. Then you spread it in a pan and bake it. Slice and serve. A couple of my older brothers claim to love the stuff. Ugh! I read somewhere that liver mush made Ben Franklin what he was--his family was very poor when he was a child, and liver mush was all they had to eat. One evening at supper he mentioned that the liver mush looked a mite thin that night. His father beat the tar out of him, and he ran away from home, never to return, and he never ate liver mush again. So began the legend.

Besides the liver mush, I remember having delicacies such as beef heart, frog legs, squirrel stew... never ate racoon that I knew of, though... some hillbillies back home did, though. Heard of some eating possum too.

[Lokidude]

B) liver, when prepared properly, ranges from good to superb. It's one of the first things, if not the first thing, a predator eats, if possible.

They can have it. I'll stick to heart.

[Fivetoes]

I loved organ meats, unfortunately gout has put a damper on enjoying them. When Grandpa butchered, he would toss all the organs, heads and some of the trimmings into a big copper kettle over a fire to make head cheese, souse, ring pudding and mincemeat from. Us kids would go out and keep taking a sample to eat. A lot of that stuff I really didn't know what I was eating until told.

[Denis]

In general, the only thing I like mayo in or on, is tuna for tunafish sandwiches.

I detest canned tuna. I like tuna fresh in sushi, or grilled/seared, but not canned.

[Denis]

I loved organ meats, unfortunately gout has put a damper on enjoying them. When Grandpa butchered, he would toss all the organs, heads and some of the trimmings into a big copper kettle over a fire to make head cheese, souse, ring pudding and mincemeat from. Us kids would go out and keep taking a sample to eat. A lot of that stuff I really didn't know what I was eating until told.

Mmm. Metzelsup.

That's German for "butchering soup". Traditionally, when the family butchers a pig in the autumn, the beast is jointed. Some pork is kept to be used fresh, and the rest is preserved as hams and such. The intestines are washed out and used as sausage casings for blood sausage and sausage made from the trimmings, belly and other bits and pieces. The sausages are cooked (poached really) in a kettle of boiling water, along with the jowls, liver dumplings and other sundries. A few of the sausages will burst (or are made to burst), making the water into a meaty broth. This is Metzelsup. Delicious.