The Other Organ Meats

Everybody has a good, cheap giggle about “prairie oysters,” that dainty dish made from a very sensitive and private part of a male animal’s anatomy. But when it comes to sensitive and private parts, how about wombs and udders as food? (Note: If you’d just rather not know a whole lot about this subject, stop reading here. Fair warning.)

As it happens, the ancient Romans were very big on both. They harvested wombs from spayed sows (vulvae steriles), boiled them until tender and served them with spicy sauces. Sometimes they stuffed them with ground meat and pine nuts as if they were sausage casings.

And the Romans regarded sow’s udders (sumina) as a delicacy. The udders had to be boiled until tender, and then the Romans would sprinkle them with pepper and roast or grill them a bit for a little added flavor. Or they’d stuff them with pickled sea urchin, making a dish with a rather uncomfortable sound.

In our day, most Americans won’t touch organ meats like womb and udder, but in poorer times, people were often quite happy to eat them. In 18th century England, as in many other places, cooks treated udders like tongue--like the Romans, first boiling them to tenderize them (in the case of cows’ udders, this process takes about a day) and then roasting them before the fire, basting with butter.

Udder, often known by the dialect name “elder,” is still eaten to some extent in the north of England, particularly as a sausage filling. It is said to taste a little like tongue, only chewier and a bit fatty. If you don’t like tongue or tripe, it would seem, just stay away from sumina.