As I told Thanh Do of the excellent Melbourne food blog I Eat Therefore I Am the other day, I had a bit of a boring anglo-Australian upbringing largely devoid of the odd bits of animals. The exception to this was beef/ox tongue, which I am ashamed to say was greeted with great disgust by my sister and myself. Our mother eventually hid the source of the meat when she served it lest we refuse to eat it. So I am afraid so say I have only the faintest of recollections as to its taste, let alone how it was prepared. How did you prepare it mum?

Since then I’ve dined on many so called odd bits, though always in restaurants. Chicken’s feet are a regular favourite at yum cha, dim sum for those of you in America. I also love a good lambs fry, though I rarely see it on the menu in Melbourne.

Thus after hearing about Jennifer McLagan’s new book Odd Bits I thought it was high time I start cooking some of these items at home. Nose to tail eating has a couple of attractions for me, it provides my foodie self more ingredients and flavours to enjoy and cook with, and my eating sustainably self a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

So to the book. It is beautifully presented with wonderful photos throughout, each “odd bit” introduced with a couple of paragraphs then sections on purchasing and preparation. Interspersed through the book are quotes by notable people of the food world lauding the tastes, smells and sights offered by the various pieces of animal under discussion. These quotes strike me as a useful aid for tempting the more recalcitrant diners in your home to trying the recipes contained in its pages.

The recipes themselves are excellent, with a low complexity and many of them taking familiar recipes and adding an “odd bits” twist. There is a surprising number of the “odd bits” which are actually familiar items, lamb ribs and necks for example already appear on my shopping list as do shanks and oxtail. I also love that some of the recipes have a delightful tongue in cheek title such as Headcheese for the Unconvinced of which my girlfriend and sister count themselves members of.

I will blog about it as soon as I cook some of the recipes, probably something in the liver or tongue sections given I’m somewhat familiar with those ingredients and flavours!

Update: I do remember our mother also did liver at one stage which was met with similar incredulity and ox tail braised in tomato sauce which went down pretty well from memory.