ReportingPraised by reckless chefs, the offal flourishes on the plates. But sweetbreads, brains and pig’s trotters are now advancing masked to better seduce the recalcitrant.
Imagine a feast of guts, cheek, muzzle, tongue, brain, tail, snout, amourettes (testicles), kidneys (kidneys), tail, foot, liver … If this Rabelaisian enumeration has not stopped your reading, it is because you have the heart – another delectable part – well hung. Or that the renewed interest in the triperie made you curious. Not very tasty, especially at the time of Instagram, long to prepare, sometimes temporarily prohibited for sale (like veal strawberries, following mad cow disease), offal has been buried a thousand times. And a thousand times have returned to the front of the table.
The consumption of tripe products is not new. Prehistoric men are already stuffing themselves with viscera, which are easier to eat raw than other parts of the animal. In the Middle Ages, all of Europe was fond of low pieces. William the Conqueror, in the XIe century, was fond of the triperie drowned in Norman apple juice. A recipe that will evolve to become that of Caen fashionable tripe. More recently, the greats of the kitchen have taken offal to the top of gastronomy. Paul Bocuse, for example, gentrified sweetbreads by accompanying them with crayfish. Its Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or inn is now dusting off the plates to win back the third Michelin star, but still offers magnificent braised sweetbreads that the master would not have denied.
“Very particular texture”
The offal is now appealing to young chefs who are not afraid of anything. Adrien Cachot, the iconoclast finalist of “Top Chef”, thus suggested, in 2020, to one of his playmates, to concoct a recipe by combining pig’s trotters, veal strawberries, mushrooms and barnacles! “What appeals to me is that it’s not attractive, laughs the disheveled chef, currently in Parisian residence at the Perchoir Ménilmontant. I cooked it in all my places, first of all for financial reasons: for a long time I could not afford the noblest parts. But also because all the chefs end up working with the same products, and it’s a way of cooking against the tide. “
In his old establishment, Détour, the maverick hid, in particular, inside a nasturtium leaf, duck’s tongue, a part of the bird that is very popular in the Chinese cuisine he is fond of. “But I don’t cook offal out of challenge, it has to be interesting, he specifies. The tongue, for example, has a very particular texture, both gelatinous and quite firm. The sweetbreads are soft, the brains silky … And then, for me, consuming every piece of the sacrificed animal is also a question of respect. Not to mention environmental concerns and the need to use all the edible parts of the beast today. “
You have 63.82% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.