Offal

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A variety of pts on a platter.

Animal heads, brains, trotters and tripe on sale in an Istanbul meat market.
Offal '?f?l, also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, refers to the
internal organs and entrails of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a
particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but includes
most internal organs excluding muscle and bone. As an English mass noun, the term
offal has no plural form. Some cultures shy away from offal as food, while others
use it as everyday food, or in delicacies. Certain offal dishesincluding foie
gras, pt and sweetbreadare considered gourmet food in international cuisine.
Others remain part of traditional regional cuisine and may be consumed especially
in connection with holidays. This includes Scottish haggis, Jewish chopped liver,
U.S. chitterlings, Mexican menudo as well as many other dishes. Intestines are
traditionally used as casing for sausages.

Depending on the context, offal may refer to those parts of an animal carcass
discarded after butchering or skinning; it may also refer to the by-products of
milled grains, such as corn or wheat.[1] Offal not used directly for human or
animal food is often processed in a rendering plant, producing material that is
used for fertilizer or fuel; or in some cases, it may be added to commercially
produced pet food.

In earlier times, mobs sometimes threw offal and other rubbish at condemned
criminals as a show of public disapproval.[2]

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Europe
2.1 British Isles
2.2 Nordic countries
2.2.1 Norway
2.2.2 Denmark
2.2.3 Iceland
2.2.4 Sweden
2.2.5 Finland
2.3 Western Europe
2.4 Southern Europe
2.5 Eastern Europe
3 South America
4 Sub-Saharan Africa
5 Asia
5.1 East Asia
5.1.1 China
5.1.2 Hong Kong
5.1.3 Japan
5.1.4 Korea
5.2 Southeast Asia
5.2.1 Indonesia
5.2.2 Malaysia and Singapore
5.2.3 Philippines
5.2.4 Thailand
5.2.5 Vietnam
5.3 South Asia
5.3.1 India and Pakistan
5.3.2 Bangladesh
5.3.3 Nepal
6 Middle East and North Africa
7 North America
7.1 United States
7.2 Mexico
7.3 Caribbean Islands
8 Australia
9 Health and food safety issues
10 See also
11 References
12 Bibliography
13 External links
Etymology[edit]

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The word shares its etymology with several Germanic words West Frisian ffal,
German Abfall (Offall in some Western German dialects and in Luxem-bourgish), afval
in Dutch and Afrikaans, avfall in Norwegian and Swedish, and affald in Danish.
These Germanic words all mean garbage or waste, or literally off-fall, referring
to that which has fallen off during butchering. However, these words are not often
used to refer to food with the exception of Afrikaans in the agglutination
afvalvleis (lit. off-fall-meat) which does indeed mean offal.[3] For instance, the
German word for offal is Innereien meaning innards and the Swedish word is innanmat
literally meaning inside-food. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word
entered Middle English from Middle Dutch in the form afval, derived from af (off)
and vallen (fall).

Europe[edit]

Calves' heads in a tripe shop

In some parts of Europe, scrotum, brain, chitterlings (pig's small intestine),
trotters (feet), heart, head (of pigs, calves, sheep and lamb), kidney, liver,
spleen, lights (lung), sweetbreads (thymus or pancreas), fries (testicles), tongue,
snout (nose), tripe (reticulum) and maws (stomach) from various mammals are common
menu items.

British Isles[edit]
See also British cuisine

An uncooked small haggis

In medieval times, humble pie (originally, Umble pie) made from animal innards
(especially deer) was a peasant food and is the source of the commonly used idiom
eating humble pie, although it has lost its