Okay, so maybe the PETA membership card got lost in the mail—alright let’s not kid ourselves here—with a new book called “The Shameless Carnivore” and devout allegiance to the New Carnivore movement, we’re sure Scott Gold is not on the groups holiday card mailing list.
The NY Post last week featured a trendy favorite in the diet of meat eaters: entrails.
It’s one thing to crave a medium rare porterhouse, but duck hearts and calf tongue? Diners and cooks alike are showcasing their love for animal flesh by proving with proper preparation the entire animal is palatable.
NY Magazine’s Grub Street editor and carnivore connoisseur, Josh Ozersky, talked about chefs leaning towards the inclusion of such varied animal parts:
“You can’t overestimate the pleasure the contemporary carnivore takes in saying they’re going to eat a cock’s comb. It’s like the modern equivalent of eating a 5-pound lobster… Chefs like [offal] because it’s cheap and it shows off their ingenuity. Your modern contemporary carnivore likes it because it gives them a certain food snob caché.”
Then is it in complete bravado for a chef to feature headcheese, offal, and pigs feet and tail on his menu? Most cuisines around the world incorporate some forms of entrails into their food, making thorough use of the animal. This has also become the practice of contemporary chefs.
Fergus Henderson, chef of St. John in London, wrote in his cookbook “Nose to Tail Eating”, “If you’re going to kill the animal, it seems only polite to use the whole thing.”
Maybe the philosophy won’t be enough to charm the PETA crew, but for the masses of carnivores out there, it’s a gaining golden rule.