Bollinger County Stray Project Report September 16-22

Do you know what a’la Reine is? It’s a French word for a creamy sauce with a garnish of sweetbreads, chicken testicles and cockscombs. A version of that dish was a made famous by Queen Catherine of France, a gal who was Italian, and brought her ‘odd bits” recipes with her.

If you are a youngster reading this piece, do you know what a sweetbread or a cockscomb is?

According to Offallygoodcooking.com sweetbread is a part of the animal we normally don’t eat (anymore). However there was a time they were never wasted. Their website says the following: “Sweetbreads are the culinary name given to the thymus gland. Sometimes attempts are made to pass off the pancreas, ovaries or testes as sweetbreads.”

A cockscomb is that wavy thing on the head of a rooster or hen that is usually red. You cook the thing to death until it is soft, remove the skin and it is like a gelatinous “wonder”. They have been a popular food since the Roman times and valued for their wavy decorative shape when placed on your plate or in your soup!

I imagine if you were to serve it today your family or guests would wonder what kind of vegetable that is and some might puke or leave the table...scared what else you are also serving them.

Queen Catherine’s dish included “kidneys, sweetbreads, artichokes, and cockscombs cooked in a mushroom and poultry stock, then thickened with almond milk and presented in a hollowed-out bread roll.”

Excuse me but “YUCK” that sounds Offal or should I say awful!

Offal is the word for organ meat such as the above and heart, lungs, trachea, eyeballs, tongue, spleen…you get the picture (don’t you…).

Gross is the word of the young and timid. Yummy is the word of the older, wiser who used the head of an animal to make a gelatinous head cheese, or liver for pate’.

Well, I was with you youngsters until I started to study how to best feed the dogs with allergies and was learning how important those organ meats are for people who also have illnesses.

For example, rare to medium rare heart is full of Co Q10. Liver is loaded with vitamins, especially high in vitamin A and copper. Eyeballs have vitamins and minerals important for better eyesight. Lungs loaded with niacin. Those bone joints help people and dogs with better healing, lubrication of their joints. Bone broth is for bone health due to the loads of minerals that make up the bones.

I think it a travesty that organs are tossed in the compost pile by most butchers and I feel it not right that they are not readily offered as the FIFTH quarter of a beef, pork, poultry, goat, or lamb.

We have lost touch with flavor, thinking the store bought grain fed beef is flavorful when it usually tastes bland and needs lots of spices or marinades. That’s why our favorite meats are lamb and duck because they have some “punch to the palate”.

I just purchased a book called Odd Bits .by Jannifer McLagan. She discusses the use of every bit of an animal and has the history and recipes to prepare it correctly.

I would like to purchase that “fifth” quarter/section from our cattle ranchers as space and need arises for the dogs and even occasionally for ourselves.

20-25% of a dog’s raw food diet needs to be organ meat due to the special minerals and vitamins each organ offers the dog. We have seven on raw and another small senior dog who gets it every third day. She needs variety or won’t eat. They eat almost eight pounds mixed meat a day which includes close to 2 pounds of organ meat.

IF you are willing to sell me that fifth quarter/section for $1 a pound, plus my share of processing costs call me before slaughter date. Fifth section meaning organs clean, not needing to be sliced or wrapped, but can be bagged in a large single bag or kept in a meat lug and cooled until I can get there to pick it up, give me a call at 573-321-0050.

It is important to know that if you will keep and use liver to feed your own pets, give no more that 5% of their daily meal in liver. It has too much copper and other vitamins to give a pet more daily. Also remember the dry dog food is sprayed with vitamins and minerals, and liver is the one that can be too rich to give even 5% with dry dog food.

Dogs held for other rescues (2):

• Two Aussie/Great Pyrenees type mix pups that were abandoned in Bollinger County, now age 10 months.

Return to owner (0), placed in other rescues or foster (0) or adopted (0):

• None

Dogs with erlichia or heartworm (0), special needs (0), or euthanized (0):

• Thanks to Tammy Beck, a stray female in Zalma was live trapped and spayed, then returned to the village. Two older families have been feeding her and her last litter, which are also being spayed.

Lost, found, and pets needing homes:

• Several dogs listed on our Facebook page also on the two Bollinger County “What’s Happening” pages, that are found or missing. IF you don’t have FB call us so we can try to match lost pets.

Miscellaneous and contact info:

We were caring for 18 dogs and pups at our home 9/22/24. If you have a stray camping out in the yard don’t wait. Call us at (573) 722-3035 or cell (573) 321-0050.