Bad recipes

An occasional series proving even the great and good suffer inexplicable lapses in taste.

Skimming through Elizabeth David's beautifully readable cookbooks, you forget how earthy and robust much of her recipes are. And nothing is quite as no-frills as Kokkoretsi, Greek offal kebabs. The name alone is ominous, with an internment camp punishment ring to it. No doubt "mountain herbs and lemons" could make anything palatable, but it wouldn't change the fact that this is one of the most alarming recipes ever written.

Kokkoretsi, from Elizabeth David's "A Book of Mediterranean Food"
"The insides of a sheep - heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brains, sweetbreads, everything - are cut into small pieces, heavily seasoned with mountain herbs and lemon and threaded on to skewers. The intestines of the animal are cleaned and wound round the skewers, which are then grilled very slowly on a spit. They are, in fact, a sort of primitive sausage, the intestine on the outside acting as a sausage skin".

Mmmmm. Mmm.