This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to beef cheeks sources. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but usually excludes muscle.
Some cultures strongly consider offal as food to be taboo, while others use it as everyday food, or even as delicacies. This section needs additional citations for verification. Dutch and Afrikaans, avfall in Norwegian and Swedish, and affald in Danish. Luncheon tongue” refers to reformed pork tongue pieces. Ox tongue” made from the pressed complete tongue, is more expensive. Both kinds of tongue are found in tinned form and in slices in supermarkets and local butchers. Home cooking and pressing of tongue have become less common over the last fifty years.
Elder” is the name given to cooked cow’s udder – another Lancashire offal dish rarely seen today. Offal connoisseurs such as Ben Greenwood OBE have frequently campaigned to bring Elder back on the menu of restaurants across Yorkshire and Lancashire. In Norway the smalahove is a traditional dish, usually eaten around and before Christmas time, made from a sheep’s head. The skin and fleece of the head is torched, the brain removed, and the head is salted, sometimes smoked, and dried. Other Norwegian specialities include smalaføtter, which is a traditional dish similar to smalahove, but instead of a sheep’s head it is made of lamb’s feet.