Offal (organ meat and other animal cast-off parts) is nutrient dense and generally inexpressive. Learn to cook and eat these rejected parts as part of sustainable food and nutrition.

I have made friends with a wonderful lady who raises and butchers all her own meat for herself and a handful of customers. Most people do not want any of the organ meats (heart, liver, kidneys), and when I am seeing her regularly she hands them all off to me for free. She also usually has more bones and pig fat than she can use and gives those to me. One day I even showed up while she was butchering so I could pick up some fresh pigs’ feet and experiment with making broth with those.

Many of these healthy items are discarded by butchers or sold inexpensively. If you are able and willing to learn to cook them, it can be a very cost- effective way to feed your family. If you are a hunter, know hunters or butcher any animals, challenge yourself to use as many parts as possible, even if you just feed it to other animals. It took me many tries to find a pate recipe I liked, but it is possible. Another great trick is to grind organ meat up and put it in your chili meat loaf or other recipes along with your normal ground beef.

This is a really good cookbook to learn more about offal “cuts” and how they are used >

Here is a free website >

Podcast >

My Pâté Recipe

• 2 cups caramelized onions
• 1+ lb of pig liver
• 10 cloves garlic
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 Tbs beef bullion
• Salt, pepper, Spike Seasoning, Oregano
• 1/2  cup butter

Instructions

Roughly chop onion and cook on low heat in ghee (or other fat) until caramelized. Chop garlic and add to onion for about five minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions and garlic to a food processor or high-speed blender.

Slice the liver, removing any membrane (white filmy layer). Cook the liver on med heat in the remaining fat, wine and bullion, until no longer bloody. Let the liver and fat cool for a few minutes, then add to food processor.

Add salt, pepper and other seasonings. Blend until smooth add a little milk or water if too thick. After this mixture has cooled in the food processor add your butter cut into tablespoon pads and blend until smooth.

Line a container with plastic wrap and smooth the pate into the container so that when it chills, you can turn the container over and peel away the plastic wrap, making the pate slice-able. Alternatively, as I’ve done here, just put the pate in a bowl or any vessel and scoop it out as needed. Eat fresh or chill to harden and further meld flavors.