Yesterday at the butcher, I was getting liver, which we eat as a meat. Liver is good for you. The person in line behind me commented that I must have a lot of cats. Ummm...no. A different time, I was deliberately getting a nice fatty cut to make the best broth with. Some of the most yummy things are the least expensive.
That is so true! Liver is delicious if it is cooked correctly, although it is easy to get it wrong. It is full of iron and other essential nutrients too. Besides liver, tripe and kidneys are also semi-popular in the UK.
Pets are such spoiled animals these days, and people don't know how to cook proper anymore. Hence, I'm actually not surprised about this! Though I do wonder -- usually people going to the butcher are s'posed to know more about cooking, meats and cuts than people who just grab the first thing in the supermarket. I never liked liver much, but I have eaten poultry heart and it tastes pretty awesome. If you went to China, people would still have decent appreciation for "rarer" cuts of meats and "organ meat"!
I see what you're saying. People are so easy so snub something they know very little about. I've seen chefs on cooking shows prepare less expensive cuts of meat to demonstrate how it could be done. Some people are on a budget and need to make their food budget stretch to feed their family. And I agree that liver is good for you, being high in iron.
I don't know that the person intended to 'snub', I think they were just kind of ignorant. I personally don't eat liver simply because I don't like it, but my cats aren't so spoiled that I'm feeding it to them either. My first thought if I were in that situation would definitely be that you were buying it for yourself, not for a pet though. I think the person who assumed you had the cats was the out of touch/weird one.
Sounds like they were being rather nosey to be honest, lol. Who's to say you weren't making a pate or something fancy for a party or get together? Besides, I think liver & onions is a fairly common dish - though I've never eaten it. I believe the only times I've ever eaten liver was in some sort of dirty rice. I've been kind of intimidated about cooking it and eating it. On some sites, I read that there are tough bits and or perhaps veiny stuff you need to cut out of it, which would probably gross me out too much if I saw that. I would also be paranoid about biting into that while eating the liver. I would be open to trying a liver pate though or if the liver was finely ground such as in dirty rice. Speaking of pets, when we did have three dogs and fed them table food, they didn't eat "cheap" cuts of meat at all - they ate what we were eating, because they were always begging. So they were eating chicken breasts, strip steaks and such, lol. For Thanksgiving and other holiday meals, we just gave up and started making each of them a plate of food so they would stop bothering us while we were eating.
Liver isn't just for cats, we occassionally have that as meals over here. I buy my cat sardines, and I don't eat them at all. He also gets his own type of fish to be steamed, and I never eat it, but my dad does at times.
Liver is a really nutritious and flavorful cut of meat, it can taste really delightful if prepared well. Likewise with many other cuts of meat, to be honest I see nothing wrong with eating the less "prime" varieties. They are cheaper and just as good a source of protein.
There's nothing wrong with liver it's packed with iron and it's good for you, I've seen some of the things that they put in Food for cats and dogs, for the most part it's healthy meats, it's just the same thing that we eat but they put different quantity of fatty meats and oils in it, they use a lot of the inside of the animal in question, but before you question this, you need to remember that they use the same things to make baloney, cold cuts and some sausages, the reason why we don't notice this is because they put it together in the factory.
If humans truly want eat more than the muscular meat off a animal and wish it to be fresh - which is when it tastes the best - simply find a place that sells and butchers the meat for you, it's that simple. Or, try hunting and fishing for wild game animals, but research about what you can eat from them in advance. I've eaten brains, livers, intestines, hearts, bone marrows, and a bunch of other stuff from animals since I was a child, and a very important thing is how one prepares it all, because some organs smell bad or taste too bland and require a good mix of seasonings for it taste good.
I usually prefer to eat the flesh of meat, but I also enjoy eating liver. I have never tried out the brain and stuff, so I do not think I have much experience in eating the other parts. But I do love eating the liver and I think it is quite awesome.
I was asking my friend about this the other day. He said that he got seven pounds of meat from his job to feed his dog. I asked why he didn't eat it himself and he said that he doesn't eat meat that's for his dog. It didn't make much sense to me but I didn't question it much. Also, I didn't know that cats eat liver. I think that's pretty interesting.
Organ meats can be delicious depending on how you cook them. I don't like spleens though, they not only look disgusting but they also taste horrible. I've heard some people say they can't eat tripe but depending on how it's cooked it can be quite delicious [I'll make a youtube vid one of these days to show you guys how it is done]. If anyone thinks organ meats are good only for pets, then they are mistaken
Yes, why would I not, specially that it's a fine and clean cut. As long as it's really good and yummy, and of course edible for humans. I'd sure cook it very well, and not eat them raw. Unlike with some animals who can eat meat raw, humans can't.
I like cow liver, chicken hearts and chicken livers. I don't think there's anything wrong with eating organ meats. I found a Chinese recipe for dim sum chicken feet and want to try them someday. The only reason I haven't yet is that the recipe has a lot of steps and would take a lot of time. And you have to cut the fingernails off the chicken feet.
One time I did buy chicken livers repeatedly for a specific cat. She had just about been emptied of blood by fleas and was completely listless and skinny beyond description. The vet didn't think she would make it; but I decided to get her some chicken livers and feed them to her raw just to see if that might build her up a bit. It worked quite well. Though it took awhile to get her back up to par she showed definite improvement after only three or four meals--one, if you count renewed interest alone as improvement, which I do. The vet was surprised when I took her back in after a week. He really hadn't expected to see her again. I just realized that I'd gone through all that and hadn't yet answered the question. Yes! I suppose I do eat cuts of meat that other people would only give their pets. And my pets generally get a little share in them.
