What Offal Can You Eat?

Most farm animal offal is edible and considered a delicacy, rich in vitamins (vitamins A, B, and C) and minerals (zinc, iron, folic acid). Edible offal includes liver, kidney, heart, stomach, sweetbread, brain, lung, and tongue. In some regions, udders, testicles, or spleen are also eaten.

These offal are particularly popular:

• Liver of beef, veal, pork, poultry, and lamb. Preparation: roasting, steaming, baking, frying. Taste: Slightly bitter, milder due to the previous soaking in milk. Try our delicious Indian-style veal liver – it’s worth it!
• Kidneys from veal, pork, lamb, and poultry. Preparation: Frying, steaming, stewing. Taste: Slightly uriney, but washing with vinegar water helps.
• Heart of veal, beef, pork, and lamb. Preparation: Frying, steaming, grilling, stewing. Flavor: Reminiscent of game.
• The stomach of pigs, poultry, and sheep. Preparation: as a casing for other dishes such as sausage, pork belly, or haggis, as an accompaniment to salads.
• Veal or lamb brains. Preparation: Baking, boiling, roasting. Taste: Fried similar to liver, raw more nutty and metallic in the aftertaste.
• Sweetbreads (growth gland) from veal or lamb. Preparation: roasting, boiling, steaming, grilling, baking, braising. Flavor: Slightly nutty.
• Tripe (rumen, forestomach) from beef, veal or sheep. Preparation: extensive cooking, then as an ingredient for stews, soups, ragouts. Taste: Neutral, depending on the ingredients.
• Veal and lamb lungs. Preparation: Soak and cook, served in strips or pureed. Taste: Neutral, depending on the ingredients.

Health risks of offal:

• Pregnant women should avoid the liver, for example, because the high vitamin A content can be harmful to the unborn child, especially in the first trimester of pregnancy.
• The consumption of offal is only recommended to a very limited extent for people with high cholesterol levels. The brain in particular has a very high cholesterol content.
• Gout patients should generally not eat offal because the disease is not compatible with the high purine content.
• In the case of offal from wild animals, consumption is generally only recommended in moderation, because the organs can be contaminated with pollutants or heavy metals. Game offal should not be on the menu more than twice a month.
• Offal is best eaten the same day it was purchased. The meat is particularly moist and has a high pH, ​​making it perishable quickly.