Substitutes for oysters and chicken necks?

Strongbad

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It finally comes to a point where I no longer tolerate oysters. I've been having these for a month+ now. The smell, the taste... yuck I can't stand it anymore :cry: . I admit I'm not a good cook but I'm still getting tired of it. Is there equivalent substitute that offers similar/better nutrient content as oysters Peating-wise? Possibly smell and taste better ;) ?

I also can't find any chicken neck in my area. Are beef/lamb/pork neck bones good substitutes for natural T3 thyroid supplement like chicken neck is? My local farmers offer these, and they're grass-fed, too. If they're good substitutes, I'll buy them. If not, I'll buy chicken necks somewhere online. I'll buy any natural T3 food sources at this point...
 

Blossom

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Fish heads have been mentioned on the forum as a decent source of thyroid. I've never tried them but if you do a search you should be able to find some information.
You could compare the nutrition in mussels and shrimp to oysters and see if you think those would work for you.
 

tara

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It's not the neck bones that have the T3, it's the thyroid gland. Ive been using chicken necks because precious posters said the thyroid gland was usually still in there. I'm pretty sure the chicken neck stock does me good, and I'm assuming it's the thyroid. If you are lucky enough to get the thyroid glands from those other animals, you could use them, but you'd have to be very careful not to overdose. I guess you could cook them up, puree with the stock, and freeze in tiny portions.
And fish head soup, as Blossom said.
Have you tried different ways to prepare oysters? Seen the recipe section here or searched online for other recipes? I don't know anything else that's as good a source as zinc, but I can't afford to eat them often myself.
 

north

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Theres nothing like oysters man. Thing is, you need to eat them raw with lemon or grill with a sauce of some cream tabasco and lemon, to make them taste good.
they taste extremely shitty if you cook them.
 

pepsi

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I dont like oysters either. I eat half a can and freeze the other half. I mush it all up
with a spoon, just raw out of the can, I have a glass of water ready and a cup of coffee with lots of sugar.
I eat a big spoonful , I dont chew it, I try to gulp it down quickly and use the glass of water to help, then I drink some of my sugar coffee. Half a can is only about 4 spoonfuls so I can get it over with
pretty quickly.

I try to do this twice a week, so thats 1 can of oysters a week. I have to do this with liver also. I really dont think theres any recipes out there that would make these 2 foods palatable to me.
 

BingDing

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Strong, maybe your local farmers can give you the thyroid with the bone, or just by itself. You would have to be careful using it.

I don't like oysters much but a big dose of cocktail sauce makes them tolerable. You can find clean ketchup and horseradish and make your own, every ready made one I found had junk in it.

I made oyster chowder once and it wasn't bad, cut up the oysters and pan fry, add to a white sauce, add potatoes and extra milk, salt of course.
 

mt_dreams

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For anyone who cannot tolerate liver or oysters, pate's are the way to go. A little cooked onion & bbq sauce will mask the taste and texture.

If you're looking to take in some animal thyroid, you could always just buy natural animal thyroid supplements and see if they have an effect on you.
 

Lilac

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I made fish-head stock for the first time ever yesterday. OMG, that was the worst-tasting thing I've ever made in my life. Even the cat wouldn't touch it. But don't let me discourage you. :)

I have not been able to find packages of chicken necks in the markets in my area. So I've been buying a Bell & Evans whole chicken, which comes with the neck, and using turkey necks to fill the stockpot. The turkey necks are cut up, so I wonder if I'm even getting the thyroid.

I ordered frozen chicken necks through U.S. Wellness Meats. They are from organic free-range chickens, and they are very big.The meat on them is rather gamey and tough.

My fishmonger has had oysters lately, so I've been getting six when I see them. (I refuse to try canned oysters from China.) I cook the oysters in butter. I find them very salty and a bit fishy. Not delicious, but not a punishment, like fish-head stock!
 

BingDing

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mt_dreams, do you have any brands that you especially like? I've tried a couple pates, even not the best ingredients, and threw most of it out. They were sort of hard, I've had soft pates in the past that I did like. And I liked liverwurst as a kid, just don't want the big commercial brands. I tried US Wellness Meats liverwurst once but I think the freezing, thawing and refreezing ruined it, I threw most of that out as well.

TIA
 

HDD

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Fish head stock is not good as is, unless you like fishy smell and taste. I use my fish stock to make New England clam chowder.
http://www.food.com/recipe/legal-seafoo ... wder-78835
I buy clams in a can and bottles of clam juice by same vendor. I sub bacon for salt pork and half and half for the cream. It is delicious. Tastes like bacon. ;) I think next time I will drain the pufa grease and use coconut oil.

I also have made a southeast asian soup with the fish stockk that is pretty good. The use of lime, ginger, and cilantro masks the fishiness of it.
 

tara

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BingDing said:
mt_dreams, do you have any brands that you especially like? I've tried a couple pates, even not the best ingredients, and threw most of it out. They were sort of hard, I've had soft pates in the past that I did like. And I liked liverwurst as a kid, just don't want the big commercial brands. I tried US Wellness Meats liverwurst once but I think the freezing, thawing and refreezing ruined it, I threw most of that out as well.

I had a couple of attempts at making liver pate. If you can figure out the flavours you'd like in it, it's a bit fiddly but not difficult. There are lots of recipes online, and you can include or exclude whatever you like.

It's a while ago, but I think mine had onion, garlic, salt, sugar, milk powder, egg, spices. The first attempt I didn't realise how important it was to discard the tough stringy bits. They wound round the blender and brought it to a halt! So next time I made sure to cut most of those bits out, and to cut the rest into smaller pieces. I blended everything raw in the blender, then baked in the oven. There are lots of other methods, though.
I think next time I'll leave out the milk powder and omit or reduce the spices, and maybe add mushrooms or herbs form flavour, and more salt than last time. Mine seemed to keep OK in small portions in the freezer.
 

BingDing

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Lilac said:
I made fish-head stock for the first time ever yesterday. OMG, that was the worst-tasting thing I've ever made in my life. Even the cat wouldn't touch it. But don't let me discourage you. :)

:rolling Whew, that's one experiment I don't have to try!

Thanks, Tara, I might try it. I'm kind of hung up on finding fresh liver. I felt vindicated when Peat said all the liver in the US tasted bad because it was spoiled.
 

HDD

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BingDing said:
Lilac said:
I made fish-head stock for the first time ever yesterday. OMG, that was the worst-tasting thing I've ever made in my life. Even the cat wouldn't touch it. But don't let me discourage you. :)

:rolling Whew, that's one experiment I don't have to try!

Thanks, Tara, I might try it. I'm kind of hung up on finding fresh liver. I felt vindicated when Peat said all the liver in the US tasted bad because it was spoiled.

I agree fish head stock is not for the faint of heart, but the stock, besides thyroid, has a good amount of gelatin. Also, fish heads are very inexpensive.
 

tara

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BingDing said:
Lilac said:
I made fish-head stock for the first time ever yesterday. OMG, that was the worst-tasting thing I've ever made in my life. Even the cat wouldn't touch it. But don't let me discourage you. :)

:rolling Whew, that's one experiment I don't have to try!

Thanks, Tara, I might try it. I'm kind of hung up on finding fresh liver. I felt vindicated when Peat said all the liver in the US tasted bad because it was spoiled.

Fresh liver tastes a lot better! If it's cooked just right it tastes sweet. :) You can get an idea just by looking at it - strong dark red is good.
 

tara

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I've cooked up fish head stock a couple of times and not been able to get myself to eat it either. I figured I should be hunting out a better soup or risotto recipe, but haven't got around to it. :)
 
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Strongbad

Strongbad

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Wow a lot of great advice/tips here :D I tried gulping raw oysters with lemon and it's actually pretty decent! I just had to pinch my nose to avoid smelling the oysters. Will go through some of the tips here (like chowder or cocktail sauce etc.) and see if it's possible to make the oysters taste and smell good, which is a very daunting task.

I contacted local farmers that provided me free-range soy-free duck eggs, and unfortunately they ran out of grass-fed free-range chicken necks, so I have to do more searching. BTW, duck eggs has a lot of vitamin K2. It's much cheaper than Super K supplement, IMO and it's very tasty.

Also bought 2 cod fish heads. Not only they're huge but they only cost me over $2! I'm surprised on how cheap these are, maybe they're just not in high demand in my area. I wonder how much thyroid these heads can provide compared to cynomel dosage. Gotta make sure not to go hyperthyroid :/

WIth Cynomel going out of stock, it'll be really expensive to buy (supply vs demand). Chicken necks and fish heads should be a much cheaper alternative.
 

BingDing

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By coincidence, I bought a small steak at the local store today. I haven't had any red meat in a few weeks, it just didn't seem appealing. The first couple bites tasted faintly like liver. So that's what putrescine or cadaverine tastes like. Man, it's no wonder I don't like it. There are a couple mail order places here that freeze the meat right away, I've gotta order some fresh.
 

Blossom

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BingDing said:
By coincidence, I bought a small steak at the local store today. I haven't had any red meat in a few weeks, it just didn't seem appealing. The first couple bites tasted faintly like liver. So that's what putrescine or cadaverine tastes like. Man, it's no wonder I don't like it. There are a couple mail order places here that freeze the meat right away, I've gotta order some fresh.
Putrescine or cadaverine yum :eek.
 

Lilac

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I agree fish head stock is not for the faint of heart, but the stock, besides thyroid, has a good amount of gelatin. Also, fish heads are very inexpensive.


It was an interesting experiment, anyway. What a strong gelatin is extracted with only 30 minutes of cooking! I wrote it off as "starvation food" and thought of Peat's quote that he never smelled a kidney that he wanted to eat.
 

Lilac

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The first couple bites tasted faintly like liver.

On occasion, I have had grass-fed beef that tasted a bit liverish. I figured it was because it had more minerals. Just a thought.
 

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