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Tuesday: January 22, 2008

Feed the Geek

Filed under: — site admin @ 1:58 AM GMT-0500

A month ago I posted about Liver Pudding, a Carolina delicacy whose very name makes me shudder. Last week, Ann Althouse reminded us that her readers once paid her $200 to eat something she has always despised, an egg salad sandwich. Putting these two facts together, it occurred to me that I might be able to raise some much-needed funds, find something to write about, and gratify my more sadistic readers, all at the same time. I therefore undertake the following promises:

  1. For a PayPal contribution of only $20, I will buy and eat an entire one-pound package of Neese’s Liver Pudding, finishing it off in no more than a week, will post pictures of the stuff in the package, in the frying pan, and on the plate, and will write about its taste, texture, and any other characteristics worth noting on both of my weblogs.
  2. For another $20 each, I will do the same for Neese’s C Loaf (main ingredient: pork stomachs) and Scrapple. (I haven’t seen Liver Mush or any of the other more exotic Neese’s products in the grocery stores I frequent, but am willing to look for them, if anyone wants me to try them.) For no further charge — because I’m sure I’ll like it — I will also buy a package of Neese’s Country Sausage, to see how it compares, if readers answer the first two challenges.
  3. For $100, I will make and review a haggis. My local Asian grocery store had two of the three main ingredients last time I was there (lamb stomach and liver) and I should be able to get a lamb heart there or somewhere in town — perhaps at a Halal butcher. (The recipes call for sheep, not lamb, but surely either will do?)
  4. Finally, for $200 I will purchase a package of ‘pork uteri’ at the Asian grocery, cook them using an authentic ancient Roman recipe from Apicius, eat them, and provide pictures and a review, as before. Sows’ wombs were a Roman delicacy, as admired as lobster or Porterhouse steak today, but I’ve never tried them and am torn between intellectual curiosity and visceral disgust.

Now I need to look through Apicius and see if there are any more Roman delicacies to add to my fund-raising challenge. The Asian grocery carries goat penises and ‘intestinal bung’, but I don’t recall anything like either of those in Apicius. And I doubt that I can get hold of flamingo or dormouse.

11 Comments »

  1. for #3, you’d better get moving. Burns’ day is Friday.

    Comment by steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) — Tuesday: January 22, 2008 @ 10:25 AM GMT-0500

  2. I just couldn’t do that to you. I will admit, though, that I have eaten haggis, in Scotland. It actually wasn’t too bad.

    Comment by Andrea Harris — Tuesday: January 22, 2008 @ 4:23 PM GMT-0500

  3. Haggis can be had in a can nowadays, via Amazon. And I’ve eaten both Neese’s Liver Pudding and C-Loaf, more than once. Both are great. The Souse…not so much.

    Comment by Bigwig — Wednesday: January 23, 2008 @ 11:46 AM GMT-0500

  4. Having eaten both, I’d much rather eat Neese’s Liver Pudding than an egg salad sandwich. Neese’s really doesn’t make anything that isn’t worth eating. Cold chopped boiled chicken embryos mixed with mayonnaise is just flat out slimy and disgusting.

    Comment by Matthew — Thursday: January 24, 2008 @ 11:15 AM GMT-0500

  5. Again concerning #3, tomorrow evening we plan to go to this place: http://www.royalmilepub.com/ which is serving Burns’ suppers all weekend. Kathie’s going to skip the haggis, but I’m having it, and I can drink all the whisky I want, since Kathie has to drive because my license is already suspended (long story, it’s a paperwork problem).

    I’ve had haggis before, during our one trip to Scotland.

    Comment by steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) — Thursday: January 24, 2008 @ 10:12 PM GMT-0500

  6. I like organ meats, so I bet I’d like their liver pudding.

    (Heck, I cook chicken livers in bacon fat to go with my bacon and eggs!)

    Comment by Sigivald — Friday: January 25, 2008 @ 1:51 PM GMT-0500

  7. As for dormouse, Wikipedia’s entry on the edible dormouse says they’re still trapped and eaten in Slovenia. Apparently, according to something I read in the past few years, in Roman time, dormice were the deluxe pizza topping in the Naples area, as indicated by archeological finds in Herculaneum and Pompeii.

    Comment by steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) — Friday: January 25, 2008 @ 2:24 PM GMT-0500

  8. Where I read about Herculaneum and Pompeii pizza joints:
    http://astore.amazon.co.uk/archweb-21/detail/0380973103

    Comment by steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) — Friday: January 25, 2008 @ 2:31 PM GMT-0500

  9. The haggis was good, as was the whisky.

    Sigivald, you sure you’re not related to us Weevils?

    Comment by steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) — Sunday: January 27, 2008 @ 9:26 PM GMT-0500

  10. We just got back from Scotland and being wimpy and only having a Scottish breakfast on a Friday, I only managed to try vegetarian haggis. That I would eat again. I’m still not sure about the real thing.

    Comment by Jordana — Saturday: March 8, 2008 @ 3:28 PM GMT-0500

  11. I live in the south…not that im proud of that….and liver pudding is a normal thing for a lot of people. Souse meat is considered disgusting by anyone who has a wee bit of self respect. Its considered trashy to eat that mess. Ive never seen C Loaf in stores nor do I care to. Neeses sausage used to be a big thing in our house but it isnt as good as it used to be.

    Comment by "Jenny" — Saturday: April 24, 2010 @ 4:18 PM GMT-0500

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