Got some spleening to do

I was planning to do a triptych of organ meats last night, but the calf’s liver I bought is still thawing, and the fresh lamb’s kidneys I was eyeing at Pike’s Market turned out, on closer inspection, to not be so fresh, so I ended up going with just the pig spleen:

…three pig spleens, to be exact, which I bought for a total of 89 cents at Uwajimaya.

For a recipe I turned to Fergus Henderson’s The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating. His “Rolled Pig Spleen” has you layer bacon and sage on the spleens, like so:

Then roll them up tight and secure with skewers (I forgot to buy skewers so I used kitchen twine), and put them in an overproof dish filled with chicken stock:

This goes into an oven for an hour and a half at 350° F. The finished roll-ups are then sliced into serving rounds:

You’re supposed to let them cool before you slice them, but I jumped the gun and started cutting while they were still warm, which loosened the roll and led to the unfortunate turd-like appearance you see here. As for the flavor and texture, it’s kind of like chewy liverwurst. There’s also a weird aftertaste—I thought it might be the sage, but after sampling the leftovers this morning I’m pretty sure it’s the spleen itself.

My final verdict: Interesting, but not really my thing.

Tonight: beef tongue.