Lecter would have wanted it that way
Another thing, of course, is the acceptance that it may have the offal in this well-intentioned today; so cheesy and so akin to the double standards of the guy who would never touch this dish ( 'Brains', by Francis Paniego ) but with the shopping cart up to the Mercadona filleted breast flag. Offal (offal) refers to the entrails of a dead animal, usually considered as offal or discards (hello, Ángel León) like nose, mask, ears, tongue or blood. The offal is an inseparable part of our gastronomic history —so well established in the Villa de Madrid, in Aragon and in other areas where hunting is common. Also in the rest of the peninsula in so absolutely our sausages.
Will they reach (that is, will they return) to our kitchens and our menus of the day entrails and brains ? I travel to Ezcaray, homeland of Francis Paniego (his 'favorite son') responsible for putting La Rioja on the map of haute cuisine, to talk about entrails, history and terroir: " We have always used the offal in our history. They were probably the most interesting pieces of the animal, the entrails: the most interesting part in terms of taste, the most protein. I speak of a primitive state . And we cooks have a function that goes beyond making things easy, I'm talking about a certain responsibility with what the cook has been. The cook has a power, above all that of make certain things fashionable.”
Echaurren pork skin tripe
But what about the rejection of the clientele? (An important note: Paniego's star tasting menu during the last season is called from the bowels and it is a treatise on offal): “Well, there is everything. But we must take into account another perspective: from the ecological point of view , makes all the sense in the world, is that you do not throw anything. We are in the 21st century, you cannot not do it... It is that we only go to the sirloin of the cow and the entrecôte but there are a lot of other pieces; no, no, please. The animal would have to take advantage of 100% ”.
Difficult Francis —seat an animalist at the table and make him understand this perspective. In any case, don't we eat too much meat? “It is very clear that we eat too much meat. And meat is probably one of the main culprits of global pollution. Beef farms are responsible for the majority of methane emissions into the atmosphere. ... and the causes of the greenhouse effect, it's incredible. We have created a production system that is unthinkable. Incredible that I can order 10 tenderloins for this week, another 10 for the following week. Only this week I eat 20 sirloins, which is 10 cows. 10 cows! they have to kill for me, multiply this by all the restaurants in the world: there are no cows on the planet. It's amazing. In the face of all the ecological, vegetarian and well-thinking posture: defending the offal seems to me ecological, sustainable, 100% utilization . And a much more consistent attitude. Yes, seeing a brain is impressive, but in reality it is the same as seeing a fish, a mullet; After all, it's a corpse."
Offal
Corpses, viscera and fire. Blood as the common thread of a gastronomy (that of our grandparents, you don't have to go that far) closer to nature, the environment, the seasons (the days of 'killing') or purely bodily needs s: the plate as the caloric intake necessary to face the day of farming or the cold. And not so much for the silliness and the photo with Amaro filter for the Instagram of the foodie on duty.
Gastronomy as a reflection of our history —that we are ourselves. The kitchen as a civilization : as history, as culture, as an unbreakable bond with ours. Wasn't that eating?
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"The animal should be used 100%"