It’s not like it’s kidneys
Now I need to figure out just what a C-loaf is. And souse, which looks like headcheese? But I know in Jamaica it’s more like a soup/stew made from various animal parts, like pig skin and feet. Either way, delicious!
You probably want to stay away from two others:
souse (like head cheese with pork)
c-loaf (aka chitlins, aka chitterling loaf, aka pork stomach and intestines with spices and vinegar, pre cooked into a loaf form)
I have not had either, but old southern folks mention them from time to time.
When we say livermush here we are talking about this though:
A southern American food composed of pig liver, head parts, and cornmeal. It is commonly spiced with pepper and sage. Considered a more tolerable version of scrapple, livermush was most likely brought south through the Appalachian mountains by German settlers from Philadelphia. Livermush is colloquially known as poor man’s or poor boy’s pâté.
Livermush is commonly prepared by cutting a slice off of a pre-prepared loaf and frying it with grease in a skillet until golden brown, much like you would SPAM. At breakfast liver mush would be served alongside grits and eggs. For lunch liver mush can be made into a sandwich with mayonnaise, either fried as above, or left cold. As liver mush’s popularity rises, it is appearing as a primary ingredient in dishes such as omelets and pizza.
Apparently cooked c-loaf:
And someone that ate souse and breaks it down for us:
Yeah I got tricked into trying “souse meat” by my parents when I was about 12 at a state fair. After the first bite, I left the rest of my slice in a fake potted plant. Never forget. Your pic looks like a great classic southern meal, but only with bbq pls thx.
I don’t like kidneys because of the smell, but for most other stuff? I’ll at least try it.
Some of the best food in the world is made of garbage meat.
Reading that the souse has a strong vinegar taste, as well as the C-loaf - I’ll stick with headcheese.
It’s crazy how the garbage meats are so much higher priced now thanks to gastropubs and hipsters. Make Oxtails Cheap Again will be my campaign slogan.
I note a difference between muscle and skin animal parts (steak, tongue, stomach, heart, pork rind) vs other organs (liver, kidney, gizzard, brain).
Oh man, now I’m craving that. Time to hit La Cocina de Ricardo soon.
I’m craving it too. I don’t know of a place close by that serves it though. :(
My dad’s maternal grandmother was Pennsylvania Dutch. Whenever she would visit, she would make scrapple. He hated it. Said it was absolutely disgusting. There were foods from his childhood that he didn’t like at the time that he would look back on and kind of miss. Scrapple was never, ever one of those things. I could just about turn his stomach by saying the word.
I just had a burger stuffed with mac and cheese with thick cut bacon on top. I feel like I’ve fulfilled my duty as an American.
Are the tiny hairs the pig’s short and curlies? We like to eat pigs in Iowa, but I don’t think we have anything like that. Bacon, ham, and sausage is good enough for us.
The only thing I can imagine would introduce hair into scrapple would be if you used pork skin, where you’d get some of the hairs (like you have on pork rinds).
Like I said though, I have never encountered hair in my scrapple, ever. I think that was originally just made as a joke comment by someone.
Tonight was some lovely deep-fried pig ears along with our hakata ramen at Shin-Sen-Gumi.
Ok, those of you that live in or near the Twin Cities really need to go to Mucci’s: https://www.muccisitalian.com
I mostly get the pizza. It is fantabulous, the best I’ve ever had in my entire life, and cycles in new creative topping combos constantly. Tonight I had their “Betty”, which is topped with garlic butter, smoked mozzarella, chevre, pancetta, grapes and rosemary. Fucking fabulous. They’ve also got the Mady at the moment, which has creme fraiche, mozzarella, pecorino romano, eggs, arugula and speck. So good. And the Camilla, with fried chicken, peppadew peppers and agrodolce (which is a combination of balsamic vinegar and honey that’s amazing).
They also do fabulous (freshly made) pasta, a rotating selection of appetizers, sides and “secondi”, and a new three course meal every day (spendy but as a birthday treat, unmatched). Only downside is they’re small (I think they may not even seat 40 people) and can’t take reservations, so you may have to wait a bit for a table. But mainly in the mid-evening or weekends.
Also for some reason they do doughnuts weekend mornings, which look incredible but I have yet to shift my butt out and about in time to catch those.
I expect to be adding lots to this thread in the coming months. (Posting as a reminder to myself since I forgot this thread existed)
Unusual Thanksgiving for me this year, in that I didn’t do any cooking whatsoever. Just kept out of the way while friends did wonderful things with slow-roasted pork. Which I wish I had documented.
Then I headed up to Maine. Terrible pictures of very good food from Scales, in Portland:
Smoked bluefish pâté with pine nuts and olive tapenade, on toast. Really nicely balanced. The fish wasn’t oversmoked, and you could taste everything here and there. The only nit I’d pick is that the bread was too thickly sliced, which threw off the texture a bit.
Then broiled halibut with brown butter, lemon, and hazelnuts (plus some tiny potatoes):
This was interesting. The fish was beautifully done—when broiling fish, I typically lose my nerve and overdo it—and butter+lemon is always a classic. The hazelnuts were a new one on me. I might have gone the other way and put the hazelnuts with the bluefish and saved the pine nuts for the halibut, but it was a good combination.
Oddly enough, the most gratifying dish was a simple green salad with the best house dressing I’ve had in a hell of a long time. A basic red wine vinaigrette, nothing fancy, but perfectly done. It was one of those things that was wonderful to eat, and a little bit demoralizing. I do green salads with vinaigrettes all the freakin’ time, and I have not once put the pieces together that well.
Portland really has some wonderful restaurants. Neat city overall, and the food scene is extraordinary.