[Sca-cooks] tongue and almonds -- a marzipan tongue?

[Michael Newton]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chip" <jallen at multipro.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 4:47 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] tongue and almonds -- a marzipan tongue?


> Warning:  Rant ahead.
>
> Is it IMPOSSIBLE to find beef tongues?  Every single store and butcher
> I have called say they don't carry beef tongues, can't order beef
> tongues, and say they're illegal -- a so-called "questionable" meat.
>
> If I can buy pig intestines aka chitterlings aka chitlins aka offal,
> what could be so questionable about a tongue?
>
> Is this USDA policy?  The feel I'm getting is that it's a recent
> change.  I know beef tongues are not being wasted at slaughter and I
> have no doubt they find their way into Potted Meat Food Product or
> Treet Lite or worse yet, dog food.
>
> I wonder if I can still get tripe for menudo?  Or pigs' feet?  Wanna
> talk about questionable?  We all know what pigs walk in!
>
> Now there's no way I'll find ten tongues by the 19th.  Expletive!
Nope, tongues are still _quite_ legal! My guess is the store and butcher is
giving you a cock and bull story in order to not go out of their way to find
a meat which has gone out of popular taste in the mainstream. I would
suggest trying either a specialty meat shop, like a meat locker, or next
time give your local butcher time enough to order tongues from the slaughter
house. The tongues at the plant where I'm posted go toward human consumption
rather than dog food (most of which is made from lungs, which the USDA does
consider inedible, and from most of the lungs I've seen, the Agency has a
good point), but it's a kosher plant so I guess most Jewish delis consider
tongue sandwiches normal.
Tripe you can still get, however it is considered questionable since you
can't get tripe without ingestia (duh). Therefore, tripe can be considered
clean, just not as sanitary as the rest of the organs. Feet, pig and
otherwise, are also passable by USDA standards, if proper washing is done.
The beef feet at my plant are washed and then sent elsewhere to be made into
kosher jello.
Beatrix of Tanet
aka. Inspector Elizabeth Newton, Food Safety Inspection Service, U.S.D.A.


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