Kyle's Blizzard of Gizzards for Trivia Wizards Quiz

Answer: the thick, muscular part of the stomach

The gizzard is a modified muscular, thick-walled pouch behind the stomach. Generally it contains swallowed sand or grit to help grind the food before digestion, so it also called the gastric mill. It could also informally refer to the stomach and entrails as a whole of any animal, including people!

Answer: ventriculus

The word "ventriculus" is a diminutive of the Latin "venter", meaning belly. An obsolete name is the gigerium, which is Latin for giblet.

A similar anatomical word is "ventricle", which is a chamber on either side of the heart that receives blood from an atrium (another chamber). The left ventricle then contracts and expels blood into the pulmonary artery, which carries the blood to the lungs be oxygenated. The right ventricle, on the other hand, contracts and expels oxygenated blood into the aorta and thence to all the rest of the organs and limbs of the body.

Answer: Yes

All birds have gizzards, but not all have stone or grit in them. The gizzard is essential to the digestive processes. The food first passes to the crop, or gullet pouch, where it is moistened, then to the proventriculus, or glandular stomach, where it is mixed with mucus and digestive juices, and finally to the gizzard.

Answer: turtles (all)

The mullet, found in rivers, and the mud shad, found in freshwater lakes and streams in North America, both have gizzards. Another fish, the gillaroo, found in Lough Melvin in Ireland, uses a gizzard to digest water snails, its favorite food. All alligators and crocodiles have gizzards. Earthworms even have gizzards, sacs that contract and grind the food.

It is believed that certain dinosaurs had gizzards too, including the Psittacosaurus and the Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus). But no turtles have gizzards!

Answer: eyes

In the USA, the heart, liver, gizzard, and other viscera, and sometimes the neck, but not the eyes, are included a sealed bag placed in the bird's body cavity. Some people chop up the giblets and use them as stuffing. The US Department of Agriculture, however, has recommended cooking giblets separately. In the South, giblet pie and giblet gravy are popular concoctions.

Most often, poultry bought in US supermarkets lack the giblets, which end up in pet food.

Answer: giblet gravy

There are many recipes for giblet gravy. Some include added chopped hard-boiled eggs and simmering with carrots, onions, and celery to create your own cooking stock. Non-Southern recipes might even call for garlic and celery seed.

Kyle continued with his demonstration: "I should add that in Southern-style cuisine you remove the liver from the rest of the giblets and only return it to the giblets during the last 30 minutes of cooking. If you're allergic to cow's milk, I've found unsweetened soy milk or canned coconut milk to be a good substitute. (Make sure there's no vanilla added.) The very basic recipe as I've described it makes about three cups."

Answer: Victoria

"My object in writing this little book," wrote Francatelli, "is to show you how you may prepare and cook your daily food, so as to obtain from it the greatest amount of nourishment at the least possible expense; and thus, by skill and economy, add, at the same time, to your comfort and to your comparatively slender means." Francatelli recommends those who have saved their money to buy a "poor men's cooking-stove" with an oven on the side and and boiler at the back to have hot water on hand.

The book was published in 1852, back in the days when fowl were cheaply purchased with little prep from the butcher's. Francatelli first suggests scalded necks and feet to remove feathers, and then splitting the gizzard to remove the stones! Then you "put them into a saucepan with some thyme, winter savory, chopped onions, pepper and salt, and about a quart of water, and set them on the fire to stew very gently for an hour". Add flour and "mushroom ketchup", stir, and put pie dish and cover with a crust, and bake for an hour-and-a-quarter.

Answer: Chicken gizzards are low in vitamins and minerals.

Three-and-a-half ounces (100g) of cooked chicken gizzard, contain 2.68 grams of fat, less than one gram of which is saturated. This is less fat than many cuts of beef or pork. The same serving contains 30.39 grams of protein, and plenty of minerals: iron, zinc, phosphorus, and selenium. You'll also find B-vitamins: folate (B9), pyridoxine (B6), riboflavin (B2), and cobalamin (B12).

Unfortunately, you'll also consume 370 mg of cholesterol, so if you have to watch your dietary intake, it is something to consider.

Answer: Michigan

The three-day festival takes place in early June. The Gizzard Fest includes a gizzard-eating contest, naturally, along with a pancake breakfast, a 5K run/walk race, a fishing contest, a parade, a softball tournament, a basketball tournament, a used-book sale, a lawn-mower race, a flea market, live music, and of course, plenty of fried gizzards for everyone to eat. And since it's Michigan, there's also a car show, and there are fireworks at night!

Answer: January

The hearty Minnesotans hold this event in January, in the dead of winter. It is part of the Icebox Days festival, a four-day extravaganza of wacky games and activities: snow sculpting, snowshoeing contests, and frozen-turkey bowling, not to mention fireworks at night (when it's REALLY cold).

A unique event is Smoosh racing, in which teams of four strap on 2x4 pieces of lumber to their boots and amble together across the snow. The Freeze Your Gizzard Blizzard Run has been featured on The Weather Channel and on the "Extreme Traditions" program on The Travel Channel, and it has even received international news coverage, from UK media.