Offaloaf

So, as detailed elsewhere i had loads of bits and bobs of pig to use up: lungs, liver, hearts etc. I had considered making faggots, but then realised given the quantities i had I would end up with hundreds of the things; I had considered Lungemos, but a Norwegian friend told me it was rather like lung porrage and quite vile, so I thought i might have trouble selling that in to my kids.

So in the end I decided to make a sort of faggoty-mix cum hurky, cum haslet. The discussion of haslet with Pol and the success of Blood Loaf made me decided the loaf tin was the format to go for - large enough to use up product in bulk and easy to store in the freezer and convenient for serving.


Okay so i had:



a bit over a kilo of hearts, which I removed all the membranes and tubes from and chopped



a couple of kilos of lung (I actually had twoce this amount but used some elsewhere and didn't want the lung to overwhelm)



4 tongues



lots of lovely liver



and a couple of chunks of meat.

First everything was trimmed and put through the mincer. As you can see


Some of the parts of this lung look frankly less appetising than the nice soft yummy parts. Although the mincer will make short work of any tube and gristle, we are not short of material so can cut away the less appealing parts.

feeding liver through a mincer tends to produce a rather less than solid result, and at this stage it does look rather like a bucket of poo.



next the tongues:



at top you can see a whole one, at bottom a trimmed and halved one - look at the lovely texture of that meat!

And then some meat to offset all the offal - i used a 50/50 meat to offal ratio.



No need to worry about being neat - it is all going in the mincer.

Next some breadcrumbs



this was about 1.2 kilos. Loaf from the sale counter at the shop - it shouldn't be too fresh. And it was only 20p a loaf.



the bread whizzed into crumbs and 250g lard goes in with the meats

along with:



10 eggs (one has rolled out of shot), beaten



10 large-ish onions, finely chopped and sweated until translucent

and last but not least some chopped chives and sage



and then it is all mixed together



good handful of salt, loads of pepper, some ground mace and Bob is your Uncle. It has to be really well worked togeher - this takes a while.

Then packed into greased loaf tins and cooked for about 1 1/2 hours until juices run clear and internal temp of 76 is reached.


A couple of Offaloaves. One has already been partially demolished by Bea and Leo, who were very partial to it. These were the first batch - the evenness of colour got better as I finessed the time and temperature.




Several more offaloves chilling. they are wrapped tightly in clingfilm for the nightto preserve moisture and firm up.

Looks like a terrine, but with even more offal.

I bet it is wonderful!

You must really love your family to share those tongues with them pig tongue is FABULOUS just simmered till tender, skinned and trimmed and then all the kids locked up so you dont have to share

It looks really good Billy! Dont know about the lungs though, have tried a left over lung or two I have missed when cleaning poultry and they are really chewy and not very nice. Are pigs lungs nice or do they just add bulk to your loaf?

That looks really good Billy. I have to say that the scale of your cooking frightens me somewhat. Where on earth do you find big enough pots and pans etc and a kitchen big enough to store it all in! (Let alone space for the food itself!) I struggle and there are only three of us here.

Mrs C

I'm guessing there have been years of estate sale foraging in "old country" coming away with some of those old timey great kitchen implements. Heaven's know I envy that sort of equipment.

Wait, did that come out poorly??