Strange food spotted: Machito?

[Steve Wertz]

I spotted these things at an slightly 'upscale' grocer here in Austin and
though I'd see if anybody could shed any light on these sausage-like
contraptions.

I asked the meat depertment what these "Machitos" were and they're apparently a
mixture of ground heart and liver wrapped with caul fat and tied/wrapped again
with 20" or so of very small intestines (these weren't stuffed into the intestines,
but wrapped like a ball of string). The directions were to cook for ~2 hours
"until crispy" or grill indirect for 2-3 hours. Each one weighed about .75lb

I'm guessing they're pork judging by the intesting/caul fat wrapping; but
they coulda been beef. At $2.69/lb they looked pretty interesting -
somebody there put a lot of effort into rolling/wrapping these things.
But since I was cooking at a friends house I figured I'd spare them the
culinary adventure and stick with something identifiable, like pork ribs.

Anybody ever cook these? Do they go by a alternate name? The only food
reference to 'machito' I can find on the web are fried tripe - no mention of
hearts or liver.

-sw

[Jerry Jungmann]

I'm not familiar with them, but I asked our prep chef who is from Mexico
City. He has eaten them, but he personally has never made them. He says
that they are as you describe - with ground heart and liver.

A number of years ago, I was eating a parrillada (mixed grill) plate at a
restaurant in Buenos Aires. It contained grilled steak, chorizo, morcilla
(blood sausage) and intestines. I took a big bite of the intestines only to
find that they had not been well cleaned of fecal matter. Since that day,
the mere mention of the word intestine...

Jerry

[Steve Wertz]

Jerry Jungmann wrote:

> A number of years ago, I was eating a parrillada (mixed grill) plate at a
> restaurant in Buenos Aires. It contained grilled steak, chorizo, morcilla
> (blood sausage) and intestines. I took a big bite of the intestines only to
> find that they had not been well cleaned of fecal matter. Since that day,
> the mere mention of the word intestine...

MMMmm. E-Coli. Yum :-( That's where most/all the E-Coli comes from - the
unwashed intestines.

Uhh, Thanks for that Jerry.

-sw

[Jack Schidt]

"Steve Wertz" <swe...@texas.net> wrote in message
news:3D4047C6...@texas.net...

Killed the sale, did it, Steve? ;-)

Jack

[Steve Wertz]

Not at all. You've seen enough of my posts to know I'll eat most anything.
I'll examine them more closely before cooking, though.

-sw