TODAY’S GIBLETS
- Flambéing does actually do something – the 500F temperature creates different chemical reactions and lends a slight caramelized flavor as well as burning off the harsher tasting alcohol. It’s not always for show.
- When flambéing, take the pan off the burner, add the brandy, then put the pan back on the burner and tilt a little so the fumes catch fire.
- In certain sautéing, you do want to move things around on the pan – each pan has hot and cold spots, so you want the food evenly cooked, the moving also helps coats the items with oil/butter…. and it looks cool


Can’t say I was over the moon about today’s dishes. I did manage to eat each one of them, and they were…..fine: nothing crazy and nothing entirely un-edible. The first dish of the day was sautéed liver, which we cooked up with caramelized onions, and a reduced veal stock with vinegar. This tasted like that liver dish you get in a diner….no foie gras.
The second dish was sweetbreads (these are neither sweet, nor bread, they are the thymus gland OR the pancreas organ – and look like brains). I’m incredulous that the food world seems so laissez faire about sweetbreads being either one – with all the specificities we’re learning, you’d think that the culinary world would have distinguished between a lymph system gland and a digestive organ), but apparently not. Anyway, these were poached, coated in Dijon, and then flour-egg-crumb-deepfried. These were served with a sauce grenobloise (brown butter, capers, parsley, and lemon) and polenta (cooked with a bouquet garni, and goat cheese). They tasted…..fine. Sweatbreads don’t have a very strong taste, so it really could have been anything under that deepfry.


Chef Jeff demonstrated a kidney dish, which was probably the most interesting and strongest tasting dish of the day (sautéed veal kidneys, flambéed, and served with a demi-glace, cream, mustard, vinegar reduction).
Then we were onto the tongues. These we had been simmering in a court bouillon (basically vegetable soup) all day. We then had to take them out, removed the skin covering and slice. This is where I had my personal YUCK moment. The tongues looked exactly like ….well…tongues, and I was peeling off that rough layer we all have on our tongues. I kept picturing all the food that had passed over this lamb’s tongue while it was alive. Once the tough skin came off, the meat was VERY very tender, and tasted ‘different’,


and not too strong. We served this with a potato salad (my parsley slicing wasn’t refined enough), and an interesting tasting vinaigrette (a ‘ravigote’) which included a hard-boiled egg and capers. The Chef mentioned that dogs would love the tongues so I brought some home for Ajax.
We got the kitchen cleaned up a bit slow today, but with enough time to do our first Pate Brisée (shortcrust for tarts). This definitely seemed out of place today, but I can’t wait to start on the desserts. Unfortunately desserts don’t start for a while, but Chef wanted us to get learning our doughs early. The school also asked for volunteers to help create the massive Gingerbread House Dessert Display for the Bloomingdale’s Christmas Window, which I signed up for. That should be fun. Apparently they don’t often ask us lowly Level 2’s for this task, so I jumped on the opportunity.
It was a baguette from the baking class, and now off to feed the dog some tongues. (And studying for the exam tomorrow).
6 replies on “Organ Meats – Tongue, Liver, Kidney, Sweetbread: Ughhh – Day 24”
Hi Elaine, I have to admit that even though I didn’t “love” the tongue, it was really cool being exposed to different foods and tastes. I hope we get exposed to different types of cooking as we proceed through the program. I don’t think I’ll be going to that Turkish market for a while though, I”m pretty “lambed” out for a bit – but I have to admit it’s nice to have an alternative to chicken-beef-fish-pork. Sometime I go to the butcher and just go, geez, there’s got to be something else to cook! Thanks for your post.
I am in level 3 TTh nights, and thought that the lamb’s tongue was the best non-dessert item I cooked in level 2 under Chef Gabe. I didn’t care for the sauce, and the potato salad was fine separately, but I even ate the skins from the tongue that are not presentable for the plating for polite society. My partner took the obligatory taste and was like you, just meh, but I ate every other ounce of it. The flavor was just so good! lamby all the way through and with the mirepoix and bouquet garni flavors simmered in. I have to get over to the big halal meat market on 5th Av in Brooklyn at some point to buy some for home. The other places I know of that sell lamb meat will only sell you the whole lamb’s head to cook and break apart; they don’t want to break their cutting equipment on the hard raw lamb skulls to get out the tongue.
Ick is all I can say, although I suppose they could have made you cook cervelles de veau. I’m impressed that you managed to eat all 3 dishes and not surprised that there were leftovers :).
Jack Russel Terrier (Terror)….or at least he was a terror, he’s around 15yo now so he’s pretty slow moving (unless you put out lamb’s tongues!!!!!)
What kind of a dog is Ajax?
Stewart,
Let me know if Ajax liked the tongue. Chef Jeff was trying to convince me to bring some home for my little pup Skype, but I just couldn’t do it! Skype only eats organic! HA!
Great blog as usual.