Brain Sandwich

Clink link for front page article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the disappearing brain sandwich

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/Science+&+Medicine/F0A9D7667E63C28586256E1D00212D1F?OpenDocument&Headline=Brain+food%3F+Not+anymore

Why, oh, why is there not a smile icon representing the action of vomiting, here ?? Ugh !!

I recoginize that protein is protein but for some reason, I have never found brains appetizing. It belongs on another thread of things I would not, have not and never will consume.

I just pray that it is never offered to me after a few evening libations. My inhabitions are sometimes altered and I could screw up big time

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I actually tried brains once (I was tricked into it and didn't know what I was eating). I beleive they had bits of crisp bacon mixed in, some onions, and a light brown sauce. Until I knew what it was, I actually really liked it. I don't think I could bring myself to eat it again, but you never know. I like liver (please don't hate me), and the texture was similar.

A story about this on the CNN website said that people in Evansville, IN are still buying them like crazy. One man did say that the federal regulation would force some to switch to pig brains instead which are smaller and harder to cook. He didn't think that consumers would notice as most of the flavor comes from the breading anyways. I lived in Indiana for 16 years and I never heard of this so called delicacy. I think I'll take a nice deep fried pork tenderloin over the brain sandwich anyday.

My mom was once served monkey brain in Taiwan.. they brought out this live monkey and the mistress of the house tapped it's skull with a silver hammer... mom got out of eating it by telling the group that monkey wasn't kosher...

quote:

Originally posted by IansMom

My mom was once served monkey brain in Taiwan.. they brought out this live monkey and the mistress of the house tapped it's skull with a silver hammer... mom got out of eating it by telling the group that monkey wasn't kosher...

Gag a maggot

I have read about some cultures bringout a live snake, cutting it open and put its still beating heart in a drink and consuming it immediately, but the poor monkey thing

By the way, this is a very historic post.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Hell, In Taiwan they have Snake Alley.. anything to do with eating snakes...

A Patriotic post, indeed, Paul.

More food for thought: http://www.bozosoft.com/mike/meat/brains-article.html

when i was a kid we raised pigs for food
i named them
...helped slop them
was present at the hawg killin'
next morning we had scrambled eggs and pork brains
FRESH
purty good
i didn't care too much for the heart
and i'm not big on any kind of liver
...except deer liver
that's probably a topic for another website tho

I've eaten roasted squirrel brains (roasted inside the skull).

There's an old drive-in in Independence, Mo., called Clem's. At Clem's, you can buy a deep-fried brain sandwich. I tried one, once. Took one bite out of it. Didn't like the texture, didn't like the flavor, and I REALLY didn't like the appearance. Too much like something out of a biology final.

Even so, Clem's caters to a dedicated bunch of brain munchers.

Oh ya... Head Cheese... Sliced thin on a plate w/vinegar.... Tasty!

As for the live monkey brains, think I saw that on one of my younger brothers videos "faces of death" or something like that... Yuk...

quote:

Originally posted by clothier

quote:

Originally posted by IansMom

My mom was once served monkey brain in Taiwan.. they brought out this live monkey and the mistress of the house tapped it's skull with a silver hammer... mom got out of eating it by telling the group that monkey wasn't kosher...

Huh. This got me to thinking. Is monkey kosher? I mean, clearly killing it this way would preclude it, but , hmm.

There's never a rabbi around when I need one.

I would suspect it is Kosher, not having a cleft foot. But I would get your rabbi to bless it anyway.

Im having visions of Hannibal Lector and Indiana Jones and the temple of doom.

For some reason, I cannot imagine this type of sandwich being appetizing to anyone. Hannibal or not, I find it UGH!!!

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

When I was young, I loved fried brains scrambled with eggs (always pork brains), usually with catsup on them. I never put them in a sandwich, probably because even with the catsup to try to "glue" the whole thing together, it would have been very hard to keep everything from falling out of the sandwich, since the brains & eggs pieces were chunks about 1" in diameter or less. I thought they had an excellent flavor, but of course, I loved to suck marrow out of a bone from a roast or a steak, which is really the same type of meat(if you want to call it that) that the brain is made of (nerve tissue). It has been at least 25 years since I have had any, but just thinking about it again makes me hungry for them.

Dearfolk,
There used to be a restaurant in Jefferson City, Missouri that specialized in brain sandwiches. They used pork brains that were obtained fresh locally, never frozen nor canned. This place might have been written up here someplace else; I've even seen a photo of it in a magazine article or on a website.
Can any of y'all provide further information?
Thought-For-Food-fully, Ort. Carlton in Practically Brain-Dead Athens, Georgia.
P. S. I ate brains and eggs (calf's brains, that is) in Nashville at a place on Gallatin Pike that is no longer there. I really developed a taste for them... a dab or two of Texas Pete(R) and I was in heaven! When I get one of my offal cravings now, I go for some livermush... it has far, far less cholestrol per serving.
P. P. S. That head cheese in vinegar sounds heavenly! To find that, though, a person has to go where there is a sizeable Slavic population - like Cleveland or one of the large Northern industrial cities. I sure can't find that stuff hereabouts.

quote:

I loved to suck marrow out of a bone from a roast or a steak, which is really the same type of meat(if you want to call it that) that the brain is made of (nerve tissue).

Seriously, brain tastes like bone marrow? I've never had the nerve to go head-on with brain matter but I've always liked the taste of marrow. When I was a kid we used to fight over the marrow. Seems you can't get a cut of meat with a good marrow bone now. If you say it's true, I'll try the brain thing.

I really don't want to get scientific about this, but I did go to medical school for 1 year many moons ago. The brain is made up of nerve tissue (and blood vessels). This is the same nerve tissue that makes up the "marrow" in turkey neck bones (actually their spinal cord), which I love on a Thanksgiving turkey. This is also the same tissue that is in the center of many large bones, that we think of as the marrow in those bones. Brains are usually a little less soft than the marrow, but I think a lot of that is due to the fact that you usually eat marrow from a bone that has been roasted, which is cooking "wet", while brains are generally fried, which dries them out some. When the brains are fried with scrambled eggs, they are basically about the same texture as the scrambled eggs, and they have a mild flavor. This is part of the reason I like catsup on them, to add a bit more flavor to them. If you would consider putting catsup on scrambled eggs, then I would suggest you try the brains and eggs with catsup, too. I hope my "scientific" talk hasn't turned anybody off from brains (or marrow), since there are always some people that won't eat a given food when they find out what it really is.