Share a Memory

[Tony Page]

My ex husband liked a beef tongue sandwich so his mother would cook it for him. I cooked ONE in the entire time we were married; that thing was so gross looking. He liked it sliced on a sandwich with a lot of german mustard.

So let me get this straight you go to the sandwich and you say "stick your tongue out" and you just apply the mustard how easy is that

 

[Krystal Shay]

Have you had been tongue? I think it's usually boiled. I made sandwiches out of it when I was a kid. I always figured it was a British or German thing (from parents), until I ate at a Bolivian buffet one day. The server was educating me on all the stuff they had--including beef tongue--and was shocked when I told her I used to eat it as a kid. Maybe she assumed it was just a Bolivian thing.

My dad liked beef tongue. There wasn't too many parts of an animal that my grandparents or parents didn't dine on. As a kid, I use to eat squirrel and cow brains, which I hated. I also ate rocky mountain oysters aka “pig nuts.” Some say rocky mountain oysters are from bull testicles only but, we had grown up with the pig version too.

 

[John Brunner]

My dad liked beef tongue. There wasn't too many parts of an animal that my grandparents or parents didn't dine on. As a kid, I use to eat squirrel and cow brains, which I hated. I also ate rocky mountain oysters aka “pig nuts.” Some say rocky mountain oysters are from bull testicles only but, we had grown up with the pig version too.

I've never eaten brain nor "those" oysters. These days with all the weird prion stuff I'd be afraid to eat brains. (There are parts of the country--including here--where deer are spreading their version of Mad Cow Disease.) And I, too, have always heard of R.M. Oysters as coming from pigs. You gotta wonder why people would eat that. It's not as though the waste would be great in feeding them to the dogs.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

You gotta wonder why people would eat that. It's not as though the waste would be great in feeding them to the dogs.

People who experienced the Great Depression like our grandparents and parents would eat just about anything and be happy to have it. As a kid I never questioned what my mother put in stew or whatever; I'd just fix my plate and be happy to have supper. With enough onions, garlic, and gravy most anything is palatable when you're hungry.

One of my favorite things as a kid was fried beef tripe. I was totally grown before I even knew that was cow stomach.

 

[John Brunner]

People who experienced the Great Depression like our grandparents and parents would eat just about anything and be happy to have it. As a kid I never questioned what my mother put in stew or whatever; I'd just fix my plate and be happy to have supper. With enough onions, garlic, and gravy most anything is palatable when you're hungry.

One of my favorite things as a kid was fried beef tripe. I was totally grown before I even knew that was cow stomach.

That's a good point. I've always thought that tongue came from a Waste Not/Want Not era. Maybe some folks had enough hogs so when Castrating Season hit, they could make a meal out of them.

This conversation made me search for the nutritional value of pig testicles. It's pretty much the same profile as any other organ meat. And it seems that eating them is more mainstream than I thought. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology offers "food service handling guidelines and culinary uses" for them, and of course there is "The Complete Collection of Home Cooking Pork Testicles" on ChinaFoodBook.com

The whole topic makes me cross my legs...tightly.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

I'm pretty sure that a lot of "mystery meat" ended up in homemade sausage. My mother and grandma would grind up all the random bits, season well, and stuff into sausage casings.

I believe beef tongue used to be considered somewhat a delicacy. Once it's cooked properly and skinned, it looks like any other meat. But the handling of the fresh tongue is icky.