Beef Parts

So all of you who fill their freezer with a whole steer, do you eat the liver, tongue, and heart? Any favourite preparations? We were given a steer and now every square inch of freezer space is crammed with various cuts of beef, mostly ground. Personally, I would rather the freezers were full of chicken and turkey, but you can't argue with free. My 10 scrawny roosters in freezer camp are rather difficult to get at right now! Does anyone cook the "extras" and feed them to their chickens? I did give them a little of the copious amounts of liver, which they loved, and was wondering if it would be good to save it for those cold winter days when a little extra protein and nutrition would be helpful. I only have 2 children who liked the liver, so there is plenty for the chickens, if that would be good for them. I prefer chicken liver, and was so disappointed that butchers can't package them up for me when they process my roosters. Thanks for you thoughts!

We feed the extra vittles to our outdoor dogs as treats throughout the year - I do the same with chicken livers etc. when we have had meat chickens in the past. Keeps the dogs happy and close to the house, since they never know when a treat is coming, they tend to stick around in hopes of a pleasant surprise!

We will eat a little of the beef liver, heart and tongue but there is always so much - so yes, the dogs get the older ones, "beef popsicles" in summer and defrosted in winter. But caution on liver, too much is not a good thing for dogs and perhaps the same for chicken?

If you don't like a "livery" taste soak the liver in milk for an hour or so before cooking (liver,onions, bacon). The dogs will love the bloody milk and even those who say they don't like liver may eat the liver happily.

I like getting chicken liver back too but the butcher says the meat inspector is quick to throw out any liver that is in the least unusual looking - small, big, odd shaped, unusual colour - doesn't test it, just tosses it, so we rarely get ours back either.

I really like the gizzards! Wait...never mind....

Don't forget the tail and hooves too!

Oxtail soup is fantastic!

My dogs love to chew on cow hooves.

I agree - oxtail is fantastic. All sorts of great recipes, just google! Dogs will chew on hooves but either I need more dogs or fewer cows.

There are some real good Caribbean dishes where you cook up the hooves!

I distinctly remember my when my Opa came over to Canada from Germany. He was delighted to see that the price of beef tongue was dirt cheap. You pay a fortune for it in Germany. I think we had beef tongue every week when he visited.

The Germans also have beef parts all wrapped up in their sausage (so to speak).

My favourite is Blutwurst. It consists of chunks of fat, tongue and congealed blood stuffed into a section of large intestine. It is fantastic!

We also loved cows tongue in aspic sausage.

My husband and I almost divorced over ox tail soup. Not a funny story.

uno wrote:My husband and I almost divorced over ox tail soup. Not a funny story.

You can't drop a bomb like that without backup! Tell the story! If you are telling it Uno, I am sure there will be a modicum of humor.