Fergus Henderson was an advocate of nose-to-tail cooking long before it became trendy, pioneering an offal-based menu at his restaurant St John. "Spleens are a joy to cook with and eat, and the texture is not dissimilar to liver,” he says. “You should be able to get a spleen easily from your butcher with prior notice."
Make Fergus Henderson's rolled pig's spleen
The nose-to-tail supremo shares his recipe for spleen, a flavoursome and simple dish that’s similar to liver
Serves 2
Preparation time 10 mins
Cooking time 60 mins
Ingredients
- 1 pig’s spleen
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 4 sage leaves
- 2 slices of smoked streaky bacon, not too thin, with the rind removed
- Enough chicken stock to cover the spleen
- 1 red onion
- Cornichons, to serve
Method
- Lay out your spleen and season. Place the sage leaves along it, then the bacon lengthwise, roll it up, and skewer it.
- Place in an ovenproof dish, cover with the chicken stock and put in a medium oven for roughly one hour, then let it cool in the stock.
- When cold it is ready to eat; you can keep it in the stock until needed.
- To serve, remove the skewer, cut into three or four slices, and eat with very thinly sliced raw red onion and cornichons.
Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson (Bloomsbury, 2004)
