On Eating Fat Liver and Kidney
ON EATING FAT, LIVER AND KIDNEY
BY
DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS
During a cursory review of sacrosanct cooking rituals, I encountered the ancient origins of my early dislike of fat, liver, and kidney, evidently an instinctive repugnance, similar to that for killing and eating humans, rooted in the sacred Unconscious.
I already knew I was ancient when I was a little boy, so remarks by grownups that I was 7-years old were extremely annoying, but not as annoying as having fat, liver, and kidney put on my plate at that age.
Today, fat is out and lean is in, but in those days, at least in my foster home, fat was often literally the order of the day for growing boys.
I'll never forget how many times I was told, "Eat your fat, David, it's good for you."
And the bountiful Lord had provided for that purpose some of the fattiest meat in Oklahoma. The elders who found too much fat on their beef would trim it off and put it on my plate with the mature observation that growing boys need fat. And I was disgusted whenever liver or kidney was served. Of all the food in the world, those three things, fat, liver, and kidney, were not my favorite things.
Thanks to the assistance of my older foster brother, Jim, who had taught me and my six-year old girlfriend next door about the birds and the bees, I discovered a solution to be employed when nobody was looking; to wit, a loose board in the wall right behind our chairs could be pushed aside to make a hole into which unsavory substances could be surreptitiously shoved. This ingenious process was satisfactory for a couple of years, not only to me but to the thriving critters behind the boards and under the house who liked fat, liver and kidneys.
Jim and his girlfriend, by the way, were killed when his hotrod slammed into a Hormel meat truck near Muskogee.
Now then, I had not thought of that hole in the wall since then, not until I was reading Philo Judaeus' paper 'On Animals Fit To Sacrifice' just last week. Lo and Behold, my eyes fell upon the section regarding the sacrifice for preservation:
"Three parts are especially selected for the altar, the fat, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys; and all the other parts are left to make a feast for the sacrificer; and we must consider with great accuracy the reason why the portions of the entrails are in this case looked upon as sacred, and not pass this point by carelessly."
I certainly had no doubt why those parts were burned up on the altar, not only for the preservation-sacrifice but for the sin-sacrifice as well. However, I felt confused and guilty upon second thought, for to believe the worst parts were given to God to get rid of them would be contrary to the best interest of religion in self-preservation before the Absolute Power, who is, by the way, capable of extreme wrath.
Surely Philo, the venerable Jewish theologian and Hellenistic philosopher greatly respected by the Fathers of the Christian Church, would have some sophisticated explanation as to why the parts I hate are the same parts the god of Israel loves, and why offering those parts on the altar is not sheer hypocrisy. Far be it from me to concoct my own theology.
Reading on, I saw that Philo also had his doubts:
"Often when I have been considering this matter in my own mind, and investigating all these commandments, I have doubted why the law selected the lobe of the liver, and kidneys, and the fat, as the first fruits of the animals thus sacrificed; and did not choose the heart or the brain, though the dominant part of the man resides in one of these parts; and I think that many other persons who read the sacred scriptures with their mind, rather than their eyes, will ask the same question....
"The dominant power alone of all those that exist in us is able to restrain our... vices... and the abode of this dominant power... is either the brain or the heart.... One should not bring to the altar of God... that vessel from which the mind having at one time been abiding in it, has gone forth on the trackless road of injustice and impiety, having turned out of the way which leads to virtue and excellence; for it would be folly to suppose that sacrifices were not to procure a forgetfulness of offenses, but were to act as a reminder of them."
That seems rational, not to give God the vessel of impious thoughts, and allows us to enjoy Stuffed Hearts of Beef and Brain Sandwiches around the sacred precincts, but are errant thoughts more impious than what passes into the liver and kidneys? I suppose so, since impious thoughts are the outcome of a disobedient will rather than unavoidable natural waste products.
Besides, heart- and brain-eating was a pantheistic practice of head-hunting and heart-rending cannibals who believed the spiritual power was in the organs and not in the only God, so it is no wonder He would find those organs distasteful if placed on His table as parts rather than with the rest of the victim, as is appropriate with the whole-burnt offering. Be that as it may, what, then, is so good about fat, liver lobes and kidneys?
"Fat is brought because it is the richest part, and that which guards the entrails, for it envelops them and makes them to flourish, and benefits them by the softness of its touch," said Philo.
"And the kidneys are commanded to be selected on account of the adjacent parts and the organs of generation, which they, as they dwell near them, do, like good neighbors, assist and cooperate with, in order that the seed of nature may prosper without anything in it vicinity being any obstacle to it; for they are channels resembling blood, by which that part of the purification of the superfluities of the body which is moist is separated from the body; and the testicles are near, by which the seed is irrigated.
"And the lobe of the liver is the first fruit of the most important of the entrails, by means of which the food is digested....
"And the liver has a twofold power, a secretive one, and also a power of making blood. Now the secretive power secretes everything which is hard and difficult to be digested... and the other power turns all that portion of the food which is pure and properly strained... into life-like vivifying blood..."
To which Philo adds that the liver is "of a lofty character and very smooth" and that the body when sleeping looks to it as the mind looks to a mirror, dispensing with vain idols, obtaining prophetic insights.
But enough of that, for the reader's mouth is beginning to water and his stomach is growling. But wherefore his present hunger when fat, liver and kidney are so revolting to me? Methinks they those parts may actually be the favorite parts of the human race, yet the love for them had to be sacrificed because God for some mysterious reason seems to want what we want the most, thus it is most convenient for a few of us to hate what everyone wants, and to do so for everybody's good. I say a few of us because, as I speak, fat, liver, and kidneys are being devoured around the globe without regrets, and I am a definite minority.
As for me, even though I do not know French, just the sound of "Broiled Lamb's Kidneys," for example, translated into French makes my intestines heave. Whether with love or hate I cannot say for sure today, since I am beginning to believe love and hate are attached at the heart.
Well, then, you might ask, who are the special few chosen to hate what they love in order to give it to God so that the human race may be saved? I don't know, but my casual study of sacred cooking rituals makes me think I might be one of them.
In fact, now that I've thought about it, I think I may be innately a vegetarian instead of a carnivorous worm with bad teeth. All I can say for sure right now is that I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
xYx
The Works of Philo Judaeus, The Contemporary of Josephus, Transl. C.D. Yonge, B.A., London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855
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