You can have all that tripe you want. My dad made my mom cook it when I was a kid and I vowed to never eat that stinky stuff as long as I live
Oh Yeah Bossman, I forgot about tripe. The stomachs were hung on the cow pen fence by the butcher house and on kill day some older ladies would come by and wash the tripe with a water hose and then carry 'em home for supper. Like you said nothing was wasted. Brains were eaten and the thymus gland which was called "sweet breads" was cubed and fried. Hides were salted and stacked in the hide house and a buyer came around every month or so and bought the hides, I believe by the pound. Hooves and some bones went to a rendering company. Other bones were sawn into managable size and packaged for the customer as "soup bones". Tongue made great sandwich meat and we must not forget the ever popular "mountain oysters" :no . Pig ears , tails and feet were all used by some customers, everything but the squeal! Treefarmer
Two things I have my mom make for me when I visit her. Ox tail and pigs feet both with a side of garbanzo beans and white rice. I never could figure out how she made them cause hers are way better than mine. It's one of those unsolved mysteries...
a suburb kid question, why do they call it an ox tail when it comes from a cow? was the soup originaly made from real oxen?
Nacho, Oxen are technically full grown,casterated males. Cattle fed in the feed lots are usually young, both male and female, usually steers and heifers. Cows and bulls (older cattle) when butchered usually are made into ground beef as they don't grade like a younger well fed animal. So to answer your "suburb" question, "swinging steak" could be called cow tail, bull tail, calf tail, steer tail, heifer tail, etc. Also put several in a box and you can't tell 'em apart. Ox tail sounds a little more palatable than some of the other possibilites. Some of our old cook books might even give us a clue as to where the name came from. I would bet it is English in origin. Treefarmer
