Guess what I'm having for breakfast....

[Paschale]

Alright--settle down now guys. I don't want to be the cause of a fight breaking out.

Don't feel bad, 2bearslumber!  It's all in good fun.    It's a longstanding friendly discussion about the relative virtures of cuisines north or south of the mason dixon line that, from what I understand, has been going on since the beginning of the forum.  In fact, on your profile page, there's an option where you can say whether you're a grits person or not.  Debatin' and arguin' is half the fun!    This topic comes up in random threads from time to time, and everytime, people jump right in and make their case--and enjoy doing it everytime.    All I can say, though, is that the non-grits faction is right.  

[ohsoloco]

I thought headcheese and souse were two different things....at least the way we make souse anyway.  While browsing through one of my favorite catalogs (Cumberland General Store) I saw a cast iron souse pan that had the face of a pig on the bottom so the souse would...well, look like a piggy face    The recipie they had in there was for headcheese, which, from my understanding, would be kinda like a meatloaf looking thing    Souse is a little different, since it's usually the meat from pig's feet, and other parts where you kinda have to just pick little pieces of meat off of other stuff (head meat would work too), and it's in a gelatin suspension (my dad always used unflavored gelatin to make it set even better).  Even seen tongue souse before    and it's good stuff.  All the homemade souse I've had has been heavily peppered with coarse cracked black pepper, and is best served with some vinegar poured over it  

[Engineer]

These 'r good:  

Deep fried pickles
Cow's tongue
Chicken livers 'n onions
Red flannel hash
Single malt

These 'r NOT good:  

Brains
Head cheese
Haggis
Cream of Wheat
Grits

'Nuff said.

[Phorester]

Being a Southerner what married a Yankee...., lots of my favorite foods as a child are not offered at our table.  Actually I never got into the grits thing, although I love hominy, salt cured ham, pinto beans, blackeyed peas, corn bread, crappie, bluegill, bass, but since the cook doesn't.....  I either fix'em myself, wait until we visit Mom, or go without.  Can't complain about my wife's cooking though.  Lordy can she bake!  Biscuits better than Mom's (just don't tell Mom that - but nobody can beat Grandma's biscuits), cakes, pies, cookies.  Can't believe I don't weigh 400 pounds.

I am amazed, though, by the tremendous variety of human foods around the world, and the number of ways just one food item can be prepared.  I often wonder how in the world some of these were created.  I suspect either by accident or from people who were actually starving and had to cook that pig brain or die, cause that's all they had.  (Who in hell thought to fry that first slice of green tomato?)

[EZ]

Pig brains, I'll be DanG, I forgot all about pig brains. My mother use to fry them up for breakfast for us kids. We ate the heck out of them.
Aint nothing better.  
EZ

[ohsoloco]

My great grandparents were immigrants, and my grandmother had ten brothers and sisters.  The sole breadwinner (my great grandfather) died very young and his wife was left to raise 10 children (one of the daughters died prematurely as well).  Great grandma didn't speak English, so her job was a homemaker...my dad said she'd spent all day out in her garden, since that was their food.  Hard times probably doesn't come close to how they had it, but my dad said one of his aunts used to like to eat the chicken heads, probably just to get more food in her belly    Got me thinking real hard about the food that my grandmother used to prepare, like tongue, souse, tripe, beet leaves (roll em up in bread dough and bake, then dip in sour cream), and all those innard dishes that are so tasty    Most of it originally came from necessity, and now we've come to realize that it's just good eats  

[Faron]

Beef brain sandwiches have long been a staple in German resturants and taverns in Southern Indiana.  They have also long been a featured item at the big West Side Nut Club Fall Festival in Evansville IN. What with fears of mad cow disease, I understand the supply has about dried up,  forcing resturants to either drop them or go to pork brains, which are supposed to be inferior.  I've eaten them a few times,  kind of remind me of a meaty scrambled egg.  

[HOGFARMER]

Yes I do like eggs brains and grits for brekfast.  In southern Ohio this is quite popular.  We also have fresh side meat fried sometimes instead of bacon.  Someone mentioned pickled cows tounge, it can be sliced and makes a wonderful lean sandwich meat.
  Once I had supper with my vets family and they served me calf fries which were also good.  I won't tell you what part of the calf they are.  Sweetbreads (thymus gland from a calf ) are also popular in this part of the country.
  It is funny how different parts of the country vary in what the people like.

[hiya]

When we buchered pigs.The brains went in the scrapple, with the heart,liver,head meat,etc. My wife would clean the stomack, then  stuff it with potatoes, cabbage, onions, sausage and bake it.
Richard

[Tom]

Is that the same think that mitchetb was calling Hog Mall?

[Paschale]

Hmm...I bet the biggest reasons people started trying every part of an animal was simply for economic reasons.  You spend a lot of time/energy/money in fattening up your animals, and you better find the most efficient way to use as much of it as you can.  All those "non-traditional" things I guess are called offal.  And often times, as people became more affluent, they left behind the offal, and just ate the choicest cuts.  But there's an interesting movement in "haute cuisine" of serving offal.  The best chef in the country, Thomas Keller (I'm a fan of this guy) apparently really enjoys cooking with offal.  So what was once the domain of homesteaders, has now moved into the dining rooms of the $150 plate miniumum restaurants.  Pretty ironic, I think.

Here's a really interesting article on how offal is the new trend in fancy dining.  So your headcheese, and pig's brain and the like--well, y'all should bring down some northerners from New York City and charge 'em $100 for some scrambled pig's brains, with a side of grits!  :-)

http://slate.msn.com/id/2099281/

[hiya]

Tom, I think it is the same.

With a hog you eat everything but the squeel.
Richard

[Haytrader]

 

We never did eat the curl in the tail.

   

[Tom]

We tried to eat the squeal but couldn't catch it.

[CHARLIE]

I am literally laughing my butt off. And that is a lot of laughing. This thread went from grits to hog and beef innards and brains.   Where else could that happen but here.

[EZ]

Ok how about shunk cabbage. Dad use to boil it in the house and you didnt want to be in there for 3 or 4 days, but after it was done we had a feast.  
EZ

[2bearslumber]

 I thought skunk cabbage was poisonous......however, the fiddleheads that come up alongside it are delicious! I still have a mess of them in my freezer. I try to ration them out over the course of the year so I don't run out.

[HOGFARMER]

Another thing that we ate for breakfast that you might find more to your taste was pumpkin blossums.  You did them in batter then fry them in bacon fat.  Salt cod fish was also used for breakfast.

[MULE_MAN]

I like to keep it simple  I had fry ham & eggs & toast ,  a cup of coffee
and I'm happy  

I sometimes think if it wasn't for talking food, we wouldn't have  Forum.  

But you got to eat to saw  

               MERRY CHRISTMAS  MULE-MAN

[DanG]

I guess the local demographics dictate what the stores carry. Where I shop, you can get most any part of the hog. The proper term for pig stomach is "Hog Maws".  I'm surprised nobody has mentioned chitterlings. They call them "chitlins" around here, and they're made from the intestines of the hog. Most folks draw a line between what they will eat and what they won't. My line is drawn WAYYY before you get to chitlins.

We have a large Mexican and rural Black population here, so the stores(locally owned ones) accomodate their tastes. At Quality Meats, they keep a big stack of cow heads in the freezer, and sell a lot of them to the Mexicans for $20 each. Chicken feet are almost as expensive as the breasts. It is a fair-sized, self service type store, and about 15 feet of cooler space is dedicated to chicken, about the same to pork. The beef cooler is a little smaller, but the "Parts Department" takes up about 30 feet.