"Rocky Mountain Oysters" --- Noahide, kosher, considered meat?

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I am Catholic so for me the Kosher rules, which I know can be quite complex, do not apply and I do not know whether these organs may be eaten by observant Jews.

I can most definitely say I would not eat them. I, generally, eat no offal. However, as a biologist, if I were forced to choose between ‘fries’ and liver, knowing what the job of the liver is, I would choose the ‘fries’.
 
Black pudding doesn’t sound worse on paper than any other kind of sausage or processed meat, but I can’t get past the taste yet. I want to like it, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen anytime soon.
 
Black pudding doesn’t sound worse on paper than any other kind of sausage or processed meat, but I can’t get past the taste yet. I want to like it, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen anytime soon.
It’s not the taste, it’s what it’s made out of. I just cannot get past that.

I know that “oysters” or “fries”, such as what we’re discussing here, also have their own gross-out factor, but blood… sorry, no can do.

I do have to admit, with regard to the type of offal in this thread, my first reaction was “you’re telling me that people actually eat what? — I have heard tales of this since I was very young — but I’ve never heard anyone say they’re not good, or anything like that.

But then again, I know many people swear by black pudding too…
 
Ah, yes, meat in aspic. I’m pretty sure I’ve had that before in my eastern travels, had pretty much everything else. Even in this country, I will concede, Jell-O has its points, but I just say to myself “this isn’t really food!”. Growing up, I did love their egg custard with nutmeg — came in a little brown box, and you mixed it up and put it in the refrigerator to jell — but, as with so many things I develop a taste for, they took it off the market. There is a canned chili starter mix, Simple Suppers or something like that, but just as soon as it became my “go-to” base for chili, >whoosh!< off the market, can’t get it anymore. You do have to add an extra can of kidney beans, what comes in the Simple Suppers can isn’t nearly enough. (And yes, I know, there are many, many different schools of thought on what constitutes “proper” chili. Some people reject beans as anathema, some even reject tomatoes, I’ve even heard of a certain Texan chili that consists solely of the meat, the spices, and whatever gravy results from cooking all of that together. And then there’s Cincinnati chili, which is counter-intuitive to pretty much anyone who has ever become accustomed to any other kind of chili.)

Cincinnati chili - Wikipedia

I’ve eaten it plain in the bowl before, with oyster crackers and nothing else. I don’t see what’s so strange about that. Cincinnati, like Pittsburgh or Baltimore, is one of those old, heavily ethnic American cities that is sui generis. You’d never mistake it for anyplace else.

I like rice pudding, it’s nothing I would go out and buy in those little Kozy Shack cups, but if it were served to me, I wouldn’t mind. The weird thing is this dessert called kisiel (kish-ul), it’s a Polish thing, like Jell-O made with potato starch. It’s all right, but I wouldn’t make it a point to get that either. Zurek (zhoo-rek), on the other hand, kind of a creamy rye soup, slice up a hard-boiled egg and put it in the zurek, now there’s some good eating!

(If this is deemed “off-topic”, and I am dinged for it, well, then, this will have been my final post. Grease for peace!)
 
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Tell me about it! There was one fairly large grocery store (Giant) near my home in northern Virginia (metro DC, Falls Church), and almost without fail, when I would go after something, they wouldn’t have it. And we are talking about well-known brand-name products. It was almost as though someone said “hey, here comes OneDayHeWillBeHomeschoolDad again, we can read his mind and know what he’s coming after, hurry up and put in in the back room so he won’t be able to find it on the shelf!”. I say this in jest, but I’m sure you get the point. Shopping for one’s preferred brands can be a challenge sometimes.
 
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Help me out here — I’m always up to try new foods (as long as blood is not used to make them…), and I’ve been wanting to try Branston Pickle. Often I will make a light meal in late afternoon — “taking tea”, you could say — and I’ve heard it is very good on cheese with bread as a sandwich. What exactly does it taste like?

British foodstuffs are expensive enough in the US that I don’t want to waste $5-$6 on something I’m going to find nasty and not be able to eat. But then again, once upon a time, I was “in for a penny, in for a pound” with Marmite — had never tried it — and it has since become the addictive centerpiece of many a snack meal, on toast with cheese.
 
I enjoy learning about specific ethnic foods…especially ones we haven’t grown up with and are therefore either considered unusual or gross.

On kosher testicles…if one is keeping the type of kosher where no hindquarters can be eaten, then no…it’s not possible for it to be kosher. If one keeps the type of kosher where some hindquarters may be eaten if all veins and arteries are removed, then there can be a kosher Rocky Mt. Oyster…the animal…in Colorado it’s always bull testicles…must be killed by a kosher butcher and removed afterwards then properly treated and drained. My family never ate any hindquarters so I never saw them.

No longer keeping kosher and having a restaurant just down the road that’s famous for Rocky Mt. Oysters, we went there and had them. They’re delicious and we’ve returned many time for more. Both my husband and I have rarely ever met a meat we don’t like, though.

I’ve had chitlins and they’re pretty good…especially once the smell of preparation has left the vicinity! 😂

My husband loves fish so when I explained what gefilte fish was, he was willing to try it. Let’s just say you probably have to have grown up eating it to like it. He kind of gagged a little! I love gefilte fish, being raised on it, and I’m not a huge fish fan. Chopped liver can be a similar experience though my husband like that quite a bit.

He’s a Wyoming boy and never had had lamb until after we were married. Wyoming has a history with the lamb wars! Not many sheepherders in Wyoming! His first experience with lamb chops was heaven meeting earth!

Finally, I’ve never had blood pudding. I’m more than willing to try some. :hugs:
 
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I like minted lamb but I love lamb chops! It’s so seldom that I can get either that I’d go for the chops every time!
 
If you ever have the chance I would recommend having Haggis it’s on of those meats that people are like eww I would never try it but when they do they can’t get enough haha. Haggis is definitely not Kosher but there are a couple of restaurants that have started making Kosher Haggis in case you are Jewish.
 
  • Would these violate the Noahide law against eating “flesh torn from a living animal”?
  • Could they ever be considered kosher?
I would be surprised if they could ever be kosher, but I am certainly not an expert of Jewish dietary laws.
  • Could they be eaten on Fridays of abstinence, i.e., would they be considered flesh meat or offal? (I’m assuming that other offal, such as liver, can freely be eaten on Fridays of abstinence.)
I suppose they are considered offal, but I had never heard that offal (eg liver) was allowed to be eaten by the Church on days of abstinence from meat. Why do you make that assumption?

BTW: we call them calf fries, and while I haven’t had them in a long time, they are very good.
 
I’m like Santa carrying a bag of full of presents and puns for Christmas.
 
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That’s what I was thinking, along those lines, anyway. Cheddar does not get too strong or mature for me. I love flavor!

I have a pet theory, that one’s tastes are determined at least in part by genetics, and possibly even race. I am of predominantly British Isles descent. Have to wonder if Marmite caught on because it appealed to a sense of umami that already existed in Britons. “Which came first, the Marmite or the love (or hate)?” :uk:
If one keeps the type of kosher where some hindquarters may be eaten if all veins and arteries are removed, then there can be a kosher Rocky Mt. Oyster…the animal…in Colorado it’s always bull testicles…must be killed by a kosher butcher and removed afterwards then properly treated and drained.
Well, yes, if the bull is ritually slaughtered by a shochet, not much doubt there. My question was about a live bull being gelded, then the desired future foodstuff being taken away and later prepared, leaving the steer alive (if none too happy about the assault upon him).
I suppose they are considered offal, but I had never heard that offal (eg liver) was allowed to be eaten by the Church on days of abstinence from meat. Why do you make that assumption?
See above regarding USCCB guidelines, and the various definitions of “meat” in general.
 
On a side note, lamb fries are actually pretty tasty if you can get over the knowledge of what they are. There is a reason that they are called ‘rocky mountain oysters’ because they possess a creaminess that some oysters possess. I would liken them more to a good butter-poached scallop with a light lamb flavor.
Not a fan of lamb fries, I find their flavor to be insipidly mild. Pork fries, on the other hand, remind me of sweetbreads. Yummmmm…
 
I had never heard that offal (eg liver) was allowed to be eaten by the Church on days of abstinence from meat.
Yes. So according to the Catholic fasting rules, is it true that eating beef liver on a day of abstinence is allowed? What about beef tongue or beef heart?
But then again, once I was there during the Easter season, and on Good Friday, she served a chicken soup, with a fillet of chicken in it, that would put one of Truett Cathy’s Chick-fil-a sandwiches to shame!
These Catholic fasting or abstinence rules seem pretty weak to me where you can eat beef liver, beef tongue, beef heart and filet of chicken in a soup on a day of abstinence.
 
Well, yes, if the bull is ritually slaughtered by a shochet , not much doubt there. My question was about a live bull being gelded, then the desired future foodstuff being taken away and later prepared, leaving the steer alive (if none too happy about the assault upon him).
That would never be kosher. Plus, the removal of his manly bits would register the rest of the bull not kosher for life. I remember my grandma running to the rabbi when their of their ducks they were raising for food, cut its foot…was it ok to kill and eat? No, not until the wound healed and passed inspection for proper healing and no deformity…on it’s foot! No one eats duck feet! Didn’t matter…deformity is not kosher as well as wounds.

Btw, it did heal and they were later able to have their duck dinner but grandma babied that foot to make sure it healed correctly…they were always very poor and food could never be wasted…which is probably why five of her seven children were fat! 😂
 
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HomeschoolDad:
But then again, once I was there during the Easter season, and on Good Friday, she served a chicken soup, with a fillet of chicken in it, that would put one of Truett Cathy’s Chick-fil-a sandwiches to shame!
These Catholic fasting or abstinence rules seem pretty weak to me where you can eat beef liver, beef tongue, beef heart and filet of chicken in a soup on a day of abstinence.
I don’t know where the godmother got her information from. The Polish bishops may have granted certain indults due to food scarcity (Communist rationing and structured shortages, not any inherent difficulty in getting food from farm to table). Or it may have just been a tradition that came down through the family, and no one ever questioned it or asked the priest. As Tevye said, “Tradition, Tradition!
I remember my grandma running to the rabbi when their of their ducks they were raising for food, cut its foot…was it ok to kill and eat? No, not until the wound healed and passed inspection for proper healing and no deformity…on it’s foot! No one eats duck feet! Didn’t matter…deformity is not kosher as well as wounds.

Btw, it did heal and they were later able to have their duck dinner but grandma babied that foot to make sure it healed correctly
The things we learn on this forum, the sharpness of mind that we develop! Yet one more reason to regret the sunsetting of CAF on 12/31/20. Somewhere in me, there’s a Jesuit casuist or a yeshiva bocher Talmud scholar screaming to get out. Or both.
Plus, the removal of his manly bits would register the rest of the bull not kosher for life.
Because of the deformity?
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tafan2:
I had never heard that offal (eg liver) was allowed to be eaten by the Church on days of abstinence from meat.
Yes. So according to the Catholic fasting rules, is it true that eating beef liver on a day of abstinence is allowed? What about beef tongue or beef heart?
Under the present abstinence rules (USCCB), not sure if beef tongue or heart would pass muster or not, in that they are both muscles, not organs. I highly doubt the USCCB has gotten that specific. Neither one is a common American food. (I do like lengua tacos, and have wondered the same thing about them being licit on Fridays of abstinence or not.)

I did some digging and this is what Jone (picture 1) and Woywod/Smith (picture 2) had to say back in the early 20th century:

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So much for fatback, then.

These strictures might have been loosened since then.
 
Because of the deformity?
Yes. To be considered kosher, the animal must have no blemishes or deformities. A scar from a healed wound is acceptable as long as it hasn’t deformed the animal.

Edit to add… Missing his manly parts is considered a deformity.
 
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