I bought some 'Shave Secret' a couple of days ago

[tomgallagher]

Well Tom, I'm with you completely. When we all meet up to scare the local population with our shiny heads, we'll let all the other guys eat the meat with blood dripping out of it, and you and I can sit together in the 'well done' corner

Amen brother.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

WTF is a pressed duck?

This is a piece on the presentation at Tour D'Argent,--famous for the dish.  Unfortunately for me I haven't gotten to eat there . yet.
http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=13

Other presentations I've enjoyed very much are a L'Orange--with an orange based sauce, it's very good as confit (preserved duck-salted and seasoned then slowly cooked in duck fat) in cassoulet--a really great dish from Southern France--but I prefer confit of goose personally in my cassoulet. 

Good food properly prepared, great wine, amicable friends--long dinner==civilization.

[Chavster]

Eww.

I think I'd rather eat a Domino's death disk

Or even haggis!

I've had duck a l'orange but it didnt do much for me one way or another, but that thing with the squeezed guts looks totally repellent

Cassoulet is ok. I dont mind beans.



*insert X Man smiley*

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Cassoulet is ok. I dont mind beans.

    Thought you didn't like sausage--saucisse de Toulouse, and braised lamb shoulder are part of the dish, you eat that?  Cassoulet is absolutely one of the best of the classics.  Not a light or dietary meal though.

I guess there's no appetite at your place for the "variety" meats like tripe, sweetbreads and liver??   Great sources of protein, and at least for your purposes tripe and sweetbreads are "cooked through" as opposed to traditionally served to the pink side. 

[Chavster]

I cant eat run-of-the-mill sausages in the UK, but as part of a dish like cassoulet (especially if its prepared in France) then its not a problem. The French tend to be a little fussier about the mystery meat they use in their sausages

Liver is popular in the UK, usually lamb or chicken liver, but not in my house

Tripe was very popular when I was growing up, mainly because money was very tight back then in the UK (even more so than now) but Im not sure many people still eat it. Tongue is popular in sandwiches, kidneys in pies (steak and kidney pie, or steak and kidney pudding). I know butchers also sell heart and brain, but I dont know from which animal, or how/why people would use them.

Barf.

I've never eaten any type of offal, with the exception of tongue. I did eat that once, and it wasnt too bad.

p.s. Liver here is usually eaten with bacon and onions, and mashed potatoes.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Tripe was very popular when I was growing up, mainly because money was very tight back then in the UK (even more so than now) but Im not sure many people still eat it. Tongue is popular in sandwiches, kidneys in pies (steak and kidney pie, or steak and kidney pudding). I know butchers also sell heart and brain, but I dont know from which animal, or how/why people would use them.

Okay, understand--there are bad sausages in a lot of places, it's not just ground meat, it's an culinary art in and of itself.  Tongue is great, but hard to find.  I've found steak and kidney pie good--in the country not in London town, but heavy.  Heart is difficult to find and harder to find well prepared, a rare treat.  But when PMS migrated from women to cows as Mad Cow Disease they stopped selling brains here, major loss.  Brains and eggs were a great breakfast dish.  Then there's horsemeat--I've never had the opportunity to try it.

[Razor X]

Okay, understand--there are bad sausages in a lot of places, it's not just ground meat, it's an culinary art in and of itself.  Tongue is great, but hard to find.  I've found steak and kidney pie good--in the country not in London town, but heavy.  Heart is difficult to find and harder to find well prepared, a rare treat.  But when PMS migrated from women to cows as Mad Cow Disease they stopped selling brains here, major loss.  Brains and eggs were a great breakfast dish.  Then there's horsemeat--I've never had the opportunity to try it.

I seem to be using this emoticon a lot lately, but:

 

[Chavster]

*X Man smiley*

I get queasy drinking milk, so all that tongue stuff just makes me want to upchuck.

Eww.

[Razor X]

When my uncle came to visit us once, back in the 80s, he managed to find some beef kidneys in the supermarket. I didn't even know that US supermarkets sold them.  My mother cooked some for him and the whole house smelled like urine.  After two or three days of that, she put her foot down and told him she'd cook him anything else he wanted for breakfast.

[Chavster]

Eww.

The big problem with kidneys (apart from the fact they're revolting) is that they 'pop' when they're being cooked, and that popping releases that pi5sy smell into the atmosphere

*X man smiley*

My father liked to eat kippers for breakfast a lot. They also make the place stink but thankfully not as badly as kidneys. He also liked things like Kedgeree. Eww.

Im quite happy with an apple for breakfast, or if I'm really being lavish, a bowl of cereal.

[Laser Man]

Tongue is an odd thing to eat.  Seems like it's tasting me as I'm tasting it! 

[Chavster]

Eww. Well Im fussy about meat, but Im definitely fussy about the tongue I allow in my mouth 

Eww.

And how anyone can eat Tripe is totally beyond me. Its like eating an office carpet.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

When my uncle came to visit us once, back in the 80s, he managed to find some beef kidneys in the supermarket. I didn't even know that US supermarkets sold them.  My mother cooked some for him and the whole house smelled like urine.  After two or three days of that, she put her foot down and told him she'd cook him anything else he wanted for breakfast.

Beef kidneys are really strong in flavor but not like that.  Those sound like they had gone off--and the market probably didn't sell enough of them to get truly fresh ones.  Calf and lamb kidneys, again if you can get them very fresh, are much more mildly flavored and are good with a mustard based sauce.  If the kidneys smell like urine in the pan they shouldn't be eaten--they have gone off.  All food depends on quality and freshness first.  And because it's not a tremendously popular item in contemporary America good quality in such variety items is hard to find.  Because of the more European nature and tradition here it has been possible to get good quality--but it's harder all the time as the homogenized American tastes even intrude on this "island" of real food.  Funny, franchises had a hard time starting here--people stuck to the traditional foods.  Kentucky Fried Chicken's first outlet went bankrupt!  They never got too popular but when a local cooked up spicy fried chicken--Popeye's it took off like gangbusters and is now available in many other parts of the country as a franchise.  Popeye's is for us another name for fried chicken!   Boudin, tasso, addouille, pickled pork or meat, okra, mirliton, chicory coffee etc. all local foods generally unavailable elsewhere but essential for local cooking.   Just part of why it's such a unique place.  

[Chavster]

Is all of Louisiana like that or just NO? I've been to Shreveport and I dont remember it being quite so, err, 'cultured'

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Tongue is an odd thing to eat.  Seems like it's tasting me as I'm tasting it! 

One of my favorite exchanges between Archie and Edith in All in The Family,
Edith, "Archie, you want a sandwich?"
Archie, "What kind?"
Edith, "Tongue, Archie."
Archie, "Edith, how many times I gotta tell you I ain't eatin' nothin' that comes out of no cow's mouth!"
Edith, "What kind of sandwich do you want then Archie?"
Archie, "How 'bout an egg salad sandwich!"