The first time Alex Spring took a call from a customer looking for tongues, tails and innards from his Chug Springs Butchery in Chugwater, he wasn’t quite sure what to think.
Offal, as such cuts are called, has long been off-putting to most Americans, and even though he is a butcher, Spring counts himself among them.
“I don’t do any of that offal stuff,” he said, admitting that to him, most of it is “awful.”
But he has given ground on a few of the items now and then. Tongues, for example, in tacos. Otherwise known as the delicious #tacosdelengua on many a social media influencer’s platform.
“That’s what happens to most of the tongues,” Spring said. “Tacos. And I’ll eat those when someone makes them. I’m not big on them, but I do like them.”
His children, meanwhile, love them, Spring added.
And lately they’re not the only ones. In the last year, Spring has become inundated with callers seeking tongues, liver, and all manner of cuts that were once relegated to the scrap heap, suggesting the offal culinary trend that’s been rising in America is also rising in Wyoming.
The trend nationwide has been spurred by homesteaders and health gurus, seeking maximum nutrition and efficiency. But there’s also a contingent of “nose-to-tail” foodies who are embracing overlooked ingredients for their unique culinary attributes.
Spring welcomes these calls, even if he, himself, is reluctant to fully partake in this new movement. He runs a small butcher’s shop in a tiny Wyoming town, which means his business generally has room for customers who are seeking something new. Something he would have, before, likely had to throw away.
“Used to, I would have boxes and boxes of liver left over,” he said. “But right now, the only thing I have in abundance is hearts. Tongue sells out faster than I can get it.”
What Is Offal
A dictionary definition of offal restricts the category to the internal organs from an animal not meant for human consumption, and then goes on, in a quite unappetizing way, to describe the word’s use in a sentence by saying: eating pieces of braised offal turned his stomach.
This is indeed how most Americans think of the so-called variety meats that spill from an animal’s guts during slaughter — even if their immigrant ancestors from Europe and other countries not only ate such cuts once-upon-a-time, but still relish them today.
Foie gras, for example, is a French delicacy made from goose liver, while Yakitori are skewered chicken hearts. Morcilla de Granada is a Spanish sausage made from a combination of pork belly, jowl, fat, blood, onions, salt and spices like oregano and paprika, while kokoretsi is a Greek dish of chopped lamb or goat offal seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil and wrapped in intestines for slow roasting over charcoal.
Wyomingites do have at least one offal cut that’s become very common across the state — the famed Rocky Mountain oysters. These are fried bull testicles, which fans say have a calamari texture and a taste somewhere between chicken and venison. It’s not totally uncommon to see a tourist popping off now and then about how surprisingly good Rocky Mountain oysters are.
Chefs and savvy cooks, meanwhile, don’t necessarily restrict their definition of offal to just innards. Many foodies interested in the “nose to tail” movement include all the uncommon cuts.
Chicken feet, anyone?
Well how about some neckbones, tongues, cheeks, ears, snouts, trotters, tails, or marrowbones?
Shins, perhaps?
The thing about these cuts that’s attractive to chefs is that they are often inexpensive and offer interesting and unique flavor and texture. Oxtail, for example, is pretty delicious for making soup.
And the price is right. Spring, for example, sells his offal cuts for just $2 a pound.
Chug Springs Butchery offers a variety of meat cuts, including offal. (Courtesy Alex Spring) 
Inside the Chug Springs Butchery, the small meat shop has seen an increase in people seeking an unusual cut offal. (Courtesy Alex Spring) 
Meat is slied at Chug Springs Butchery, but the shop also offers some unusual cuts as well, like offal. (Courtesy Alex Spring) 
Chug Springs Butchery has seen an increase in calls from people loooking for offal. (Courtesy Alex Spring) 
Alex Spring cutting meat at Chug Springs Butchery. (Courtesy Alex Spring) 
Alex Spring cuts meat with his three sons Bradlyn, Jayson and Jayden at Chug Springs Butchery. (Courtesy Alex Springs)
Why Offal Actually Isn’t Awful
Other drivers of the offal trend are nutrition and the desire to avoid waste. In fact, both were the top considerations for nationally prominent Homestead blogger Jill Winger, who lives in Chugwater.
“People are becoming more aware of how foods are produced, and, within that, it’s, ‘How can we be good stewards?’” she said. “’How can we use the food well that we’re buying or we’re growing?’ And part of that is using the whole animal.”
Throwing away all but the choice cuts isn’t cool, Winger said, a conclusion she reached not long after her first time butchering a chicken.
“I was looking at all the pieces I was throwing in the trash and it just felt wrong,” she said. “It felt wasteful. So, I’m like, ‘I need to do better at saving these and figuring out other uses for these animals. If I’m harvesting them, I want to do right by them.’”
One of the first things she tried is something that’s considered a delicacy in China — chicken feet.
While Winger mainly uses her collagen-rich chicken feet to make soup stock, the Chinese have all kinds of delicious ways with chicken feet, or, as they are more commonly known there, Phoenix Claws. In fact, chicken feet are so popular in China, they sometimes cost more than regular chicken meat. As a result, exporting U.S. chicken feet to China has long been a multi-billion industry.
Popular for bite-sized finger foods called dim sum, chicken feet have little meat to offer. But they do have a wonderful savory taste, with a distinct gelatinous texture. That’s the collagen in the feet, which converts to a wonderful texture that helps carry an explosion of flavorful sauces to the palate in a way that can be quite pleasing — even if it’s more work than most Americans are used to, since the tiny bones are not intended for swallowing.
Collagen itself is a great nutrient, vital to skin, joint and bone health.
Tripe with chickpeas. (Getty Images) 
Prepared large intestines of chickens. (Getty Images) 
A variety of fried pork innards. (Getty Images)
Keeping It Delicious
Nutrition in offal cuts varies, but they are often quite high in protein, as well as vitamins that can be hard to get in food sources, such as vitamins D and E.
And health benefits are what Spring has heard cited the most often from customers seeking offal.
“We have several customers who buy and use it just because of the health benefits. They don’t even necessarily like it, but they eat it because it’s healthy.”
Spring said he’s seen conflicting opinions about the health benefits for some cuts of offal. Liver, for example, may be packed with nutrients, but it’s also where toxins go to get processed and ultimately can become quite concentrated. Moderation, and knowing about the lifestyle of the animal becomes important.
Spring believes that is why many of his customers seek out his shop for offal. He’s known for taking great care with the meat he butchers and even has a customer who buys liver only from him, because that customer plans to eat the liver raw.
Winger doesn’t go so far as to eat raw liver. In fact, she isn’t yet up to eating liver all by itself, even when cooked. Instead, she will sometimes mix a little bit of liver, say a 20% ratio, into hamburgers she’s making for her family. That’s a good way to keep the consumption moderate, while still plumping up the nutrition of a burger.
“The kids swear they can tell when I do that, but I think they’re making it up,” Winger said, chuckling a little bit. She herself doesn’t taste any difference.
While her children haven’t been fans of liver in burgers, they, like Spring’s children, do love tongue.
“I will boil it and then cube it and fry it,” Winger said. “And the first time I did that I thought it was bizarre. But it was actually really, really good.”
She also makes jerky using beef heart, renders beef tallow, and uses bones for bone broth. That, she added, is far richer than anything people can buy from the grocery store shelf.
“I wish I was more adventurous on some of it,” Winger said. “I haven’t tried brains yet, for example.”
But, she added, this is how traditional cultures once ate. And studies of the Hadza people, who are still eating offal, have found they have some of the healthiest gut microbiomes on the planet.
“People have been eating these parts of the animal for a long time. And it’s only in recent history where we’re so picky about it,” Winger said. “So, I’d say, give it a try. I think it’s worth it, even if it feels a bit out of the comfort zone.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
