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Head to Tail
By Miriam Marcus
Rising Star Chef Chris Cosentino
is a proponent of “sustainable eating,” |
as is evident from his menu at Incanto in San Francisco.
His menu, which changes daily, always features several deft culinary
delights, the likes of which most palates have not had the privilege
to sample—sanguinaccio (a northern Italian blood sausage),
heart, kidney, feet, ears and “head cheese”—a
‘head to tail’ dining experience. Some say “you
can eat everything but the oink.” Chef Cosentino says “if
the Italians had caught it, they would have eaten that too!”
‘Sustainable eating,’ according to Chef
Cosentino’s eco-friendly culinary sensibility
towards food and its preparation, encompasses the use
of sustainably grown produce, humane animal husbandry,
and an overall obsession with care and respect for the
planet and the environment. ‘Head to tail’
cooking can be traced back to just about every cultural
cuisine in the world, such as the Native American community
who wasted no part of the buffalo. Such products as
congealed pig’s blood, chicken feet, and pig’s
uterus are not uncommon in Chinese markets today. |
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Chitterlings, the large intestines
of pigs, are still regularly eaten in the US South; scrapple,
a cornmeal and hog offal pudding, remains a popular dish
in eastern Pennsylvania. American meat consumption on
the whole, however, has become standardized; skeletal
muscle cuts make up the majority of our carnivorous eating.
Preparing and consuming the entrails,
innards and other non-muscular passed-over parts shows
a deep appreciation of and respect for the life of the
animal being consumed. Just about every part of an animal
can be eaten, and if prepared properly, will taste delicious.
For soups and stocks, use the bones. Sausages are made
with intestines and blood. Braise an animal’s tendons
for nervetti; cook the whole head of a pig for
coppa di testa, literally “cup of head.”
Deep fry the skin to make chicarones, or boil
it to make gelatin. Fat is used to make tasty pie crusts
and dough. Fried cow testicles are affectionately called
“rocky mountain oysters.” The heart, tongue,
spleen and brains are all edible and considered by many
to be delicacies. Sweetbread, a celebrated haute dish,
is the thymus or pancreas of a young calf. “What
about foie gras?” asks Chef Cosentino. “If
you offer someone kidney they say ‘That’s
gross,’ but people don’t ever question the
liver.” Actually, the liver contains the highest
concentration of antibiotics and other harmful toxins
than any other organ, yet “it still remains the
one cut that is cool.”
It may be that the squeamishness of
most diners is due to a direct correlation to one’s
own self. To eat a burger or a boneless, skinless chicken
breast, one is far removed from the source of the culinary
treat. To eat the tongue or the brain, one is forced to
identify more directly to the physical likeness of one’s
self and one’s dinner. “There is only one
part of the animal that I will not touch,” confesses
Chef Cosentino, “and that is the penis. It’s
not something you’re really gonna want to serve
in a restaurant. I’m not rushing to try it either.”
Due to their unpopularity, uncommon
cuts of meat are often less expensive, although the detailed
work involved in their preparation drives up labor costs
and tends to create an overhead that is comparable to
more typical restaurant menu choices. “It has nothing
to do with dollar value,” as Chef Cosentino is adamant
to tell. “What it boils down to is it tastes really
great. Sustainable aside, it tastes wonderful.”
Given the trend towards organic food in the US recently,
it is a wonder that people continue to feast solely on
skeletal cuts—a practice not at all sustainable.
A prize to some and the source of cringing
for others, oddities such as pig’s trotters, lamb
heart, and blood pudding on a restaurant’s menu
are pure culinary adventurism. Offal is not for everyone—or
so anyone who has yet to try Chef Cosentino's dishes may
think. “If someone is set in their ways, the best
way to change is for them to be with a friend who orders
it, or with someone who eggs them on to order something.
One person orders it and would say, ‘This is great!
You should try it!’ It is a trickle effect.”
Not only are offal cuts highly nutritious, they offer
robust flavors and textures significantly more intriguing
than the finest filet mignon.
One way to motivate your restaurant
guests to try some fare along the old-school lines of
hooves and snouts is to take inspiration from several
of Chef Cosentino’s signature dishes. Florentine-style
Tripe
and Trotters with Tomato and Rosemary is comfort food
at its best. Honeycomb tripe is the second stomach of
a cow, and while you won’t see “feet”
on the menu, trotters, or pig’s feet, add a gelatinous
textural component.
After tasting Grilled
Beef Hearts with Roasted Golden Beets and Horseradish,
several elderly diners at Incanto remarked that
‘it’s what beef used to taste like.’
Chef Cosentino muses that comments like that “say
a lot about where our country has been in the last 40
years.” The combination of beets and horseradish
is a classic; it’s the balance of sweet and spicy.
When paired with the grilled heart this classic pairing
is lifted by the richness and depth of the meat.
Most likely due to the concentration
of iron and protein in the kidney, early Europeans thought
consuming this organ would bring strength and courage
to the diner. Steak and kidney pie remains a celebrated
treat in Australia. Lamb kidneys are the prime choice,
as opposed to other animals’ counterparts. Seared
Lamb Kidneys with Spicy Lentils and Mint is a fine
example of the tenderness and delicate flavor of this
appendage.
Chocolate
Blood Pudding with Bing cherries is closer to what
many would consider a custard or panna cotta than to a
traditional black pudding, made into a loaf and stuffed
inside a pig’s intestines. The cocoa powder provides
a surprising sweetness to this creamy dessert.
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