Beef Small Intestine Sandwich
I LOVE beef small intestine, and I most commonly get to enjoy it at Korean barbecue restaurants where it’s grilled until a bit crispy as it bastes in its own fat. Called “gopchang”, it can run a pretty penny especially in comparison to how low cost the raw product is… except I hadn’t known where to get it until I stumbled upon Wild Fork Foods where they were about $2 a pound. I was very excited, and so was my mom, so we’ve been buying pounds of it to make at home. I store it in my chest freezer for those days I’m craving it.
And then after a lot of trial and error and going down the rabbit hole of not finding any english sources, I realized the reason it can get up there price wise is because it takes a bit of energy to process. Done wrong, it just has the texture of rubber bands with very little flavor. Done right and it’s a treat that both myself and my youngest (who likes organ meats) enjoy very much. What does it taste like? It’s a flavor all on its own, with the interior having a pate consistency that’s a little bitter, reminiscent of liver, but rich and delicious and the outside a little chewy but crispy.
To start with, I defrost it and pull off the outer membrane off each of the intestines, which have been cut to foot long pieces—it’s pretty easy and comes off in one piece. I don’t pull off the fat but you can if you’d like. Then I use butchers twine and tie each end of every piece and prick a couple of times with a needle—this was an idea my mom came up with after we lamented that the interior kept spilling out during the steaming process (it loses a lot of water and the water from within the intestine pushes the filling out, this way it loses the water and not the inside). I rinse the exterior gently, rub with some salt, and then put it in the steamer to steam for about an hour. You can do less time but this makes an absolutely tender intestine (which, if you have had the rubbery kind, you’ll appreciate.)
Then you can marinate (most commonly in a soy sauce, red pepper flake, garlic, ginger, onion, and pear sauce), cut into one inch pieces, and grill. Or… you can do what I did which is without marinating, roasting it in the air fryer and making it into a delicious sandwich (almost like a Bahn mi) with a sesame cumin seed sauce I borrowed from a restaurant that served bbq originating at the border of China and Korea.
Lettuce, salad burnet, jalapeño slices, pickled daikon, mint, and cilantro all from my garden, with a homemade baguette, some sunny side quail eggs from my quails, the sesame cumin sauce, thin onion slices, and a smidge of mayo with these delicious morsels, it’s not only a frugal way to eat but a garden to table affair.
The only “recipe” I’m really providing (since I explained the process of cooking the intestines above) is the sesame cumin sauce—if you don’t have sesame paste available, peanut butter works too! Otherwise you can construct this as you prefer, or just with a bowl of hot white rice.
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon sesame paste (or peanut butter)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine or red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- Combine all the sauce ingredients and mix until smooth. Toss in crispy intestines until lightly coated.