Pork Bung (??!)

Living in an area that has many different cuisines in the market we get a lot of oriental content here, but I hadn't heard of pork bung until I was watching one of those silly competition food shows - in this case, a Chopped episode set in a casino, where they had the opportunity to gamble away an ingredient they didn't want, in this case, the pork bung.

For those who don't know, the pork bung is about a foot of intestine together with the attached pig anus.(ruined the menu? Yes, it totally rectum!)

Don't think I'll be adding that to my personal list of approved ingredients.- unless anyone has a good recipe....

Not into menudo or chitterlings, either.

[Jenise]

EUW.

Speaking of that TV show, at the hospital a few days ago Bob's meal arrived. My brother picked up the cloche to investigate the contents and then said, "Jenise, you've been chopped!" A great and badly needed laugh at the time.

Disgusting, who would eat that? Better yet, WHY?

Why? Because you're a poor farmer who, having slaughtered an animal, has to use as much of it as possible. An awful lot of such desperation food eventually becomes a "delicacy" for the well-to-do. BTW, since the mid-1800s large pork production plants have boasted that they use all of the animal except the squeal. Pork bung included. Most of it is probably ground up and used in products such as sausages. You've probably eaten it without knowing it.

One caution about sausages in France. In the US, andouille is a very spicy Cajun pork sausage. In France it is a sausage made from pork bung and chitterlings.

-Paul W.

I rarely eat sausage, but when I make a special soup I like that calls for it, I do buy an organic, natural one and make sure I read the ingredients list. Hopefully, they are honest.

[Jenise]

I rarely eat sausage, but when I make a special soup I like that calls for it, I do buy an organic, natural one and make sure I read the ingredients list. Hopefully, they are honest.

Oh they probably are, but in the world of commercial sausage making, everything on the pig is pork. They don't call out parts, at least none that I know do.

Back around ten years ago, This American Life did a segment in which they investigated rumors that some calamari served in restaurants was actually slices of deep fried pig bung. They were unable to find any evidence that this happened, but if I remember correctly they did a taste test and it was difficult to tell the difference.

One caution about sausages in France. In the US, andouille is a very spicy Cajun pork sausage. In France it is a sausage made from pork bung and chitterlings.

To the best of my knowledge, the Cajun spicy sausage is andouille while the French offal sausage is andouillette.

[Robin Garr]

To the best of my knowledge, the Cajun spicy sausage is andouille while the French offal sausage is andouillette.

Your knowledge is correct, and it's typicallly made with pork tripe and intestines but generally without the external aperture. Fancy eateries insist on product rated by the Association Amicale des Amateurs d'Andouillette Authentique, identified on the menu with the initials AAAAA. Actually, I've had it several times in France (back in my carnivore days) and can testify that it's delicious and a great match with a good Burgundy.

I remember ordering it once at a WLDG gathering at a Left Bank bistro, and when the server brought it to my place, Mary caught a whiff and whispered "I feel soooo sorry for you." It was good, though ...

Back around ten years ago, This American Life did a segment in which they investigated rumors that some calamari served in restaurants was actually slices of deep fried pig bung. They were unable to find any evidence that this happened, but if I remember correctly they did a taste test and it was difficult to tell the difference.

Yes, they replayed that episode this weekend and it still gave me the shivers, as it did the first time!

Paul's comment about the poor farmer using the entire pig brought a picture into my head of a Martha Stewart cooking show. A staff member signaled her to hurry up with the recipe. She was diligent about getting all the ingredients out of the prep bowls and told him she would not waste ingredients and would clean out the prep bowls. I liked that. I watch The Kitchen every Saturday, and while I enjoy the show very much, I often see so much waste as they rush to get the job done and leave much of the ingredients in the prep bowls. Especially honey. I keep a small rubber spatula at my stove just for that purpose. They use the same metal utensil for cleaning out all the bowls, and a whisk just does not work as well for that job. Yes, I know it's a timed program...

To the best of my knowledge, the Cajun spicy sausage is andouille while the French offal sausage is andouillette.

Andouillette is of course the diminutive form of andouille. For sure the smaller sausages are more common, but the larger form exists as well.

Regarding "calamari" that is really pork bung, fake "scallops" made from ground-up fish are a perennial problem.

-Paul W.

I am pretty adventurous as hard as offal, so when in Troyes last year definitely got (and enjoyed) the famous andouillette. But then I enjoy an occasional taste of tripe (and kidneys, liver, sweetbreads, etc). And I do like headcheese, though I don't really order brains.
To my knowledge I've never had pork bung "Calamari".
I've never heard of ground fish (surinimi?) being used as fake scallops. It was a common story when I was much younger about bycatch (shark or skate usually) being used to fake scallops. They used molds (like cookie cutters), if all the scallops are identical you know they're not real.

Yes, they used to do a cookie-cutter job on shark or skate to produce "scallops". These days they apparently use ground-up fish.

-Paul W.