What would you want from a calf?

[havsulen]

I am so happy, I just found a farm that has agreed to sell me parts of a calf. And they have kept it in an ecological/bio dynamic way so it was a happy, grazing calf!

I want to eat the flesh with the fat, and I want to make broth. I also would love to make use of organs. I am not used to serving organs though, except for chicken liver I have never had access to organs..

I have Nourishing Traditions, but I am thinking that brains and the like seem a bit hard to make to start with. Or can I do it, do you think? Would you try?

Which parts would you ask for from the calf?

[TheRobinsons]

I think I would ask for the heart. Then you can mince some up, and add small amounts to any ground beef dishes that you make. I haven't tried it yet (bought some heart this week to try), but I hate liver so I am going to try something different.

I would also ask for some osso bucco (or chops made from cutting across the shin bone I think). When you make a casserole out of these you will get lots of extra nutrition from the marrow - and they are delicious.

You could also ask for some bones (in Australia we would ask for some of the "dog" bones - because normally we would feed our dogs with them ) but you can use these to make beef broth based on the NT recipe.

Otherwise, I would just remind the farmer that you want lots of fat, and if he is going to mince some of the meat for you, he can include more fat than he might have otherwise.

Hope it all goes well. We breed our own cattle for meat, and when we last killed some (about a year ago) I wasn't into NT yet, and I told DH I didn't want any organs kept (I told him eating organs was disgusting ) I now think, what a waste I made of beautiful, organic pastured beef and lamb organs. I will know better next time!

[havsulen]

Thank you so much for answering, I really appreciate it! And now I am really looking forward to getting it all and trying it out.

[TheRobinsons]

Just wanted to let you know that I used the beef heart for dinner last night and it went really well. I think because it is a muscle, it didn't have the same taste as other organ meats. I made a cottage pie, with ground beef and heart, onions, peppers, carrot, celery, peas, corn, tinned tomatoes and tomato paste and herbs. Cook all this up and put it into a casserole dish. Mash potatoes on the top, sprinkle with cheese and bake for about 20 mins. It was delicious, and none of us could notice any taste from the heart.

[Mama_Meme]

a note about the heart - my DH, who is incredibly fickle, loves ground beef and heart meatloaf. He actually asks me to get him heart so I can make it, because it is so tasty.
I would try to get the sweetbreads. Calf sweetbreads are very tender and tasty. There are some recipes in NT for them too.
Good luck and happy eating!