Fried WHAT sandwiches? If you say so
A good brain is hard to find.
You can’t just walk into any old store and buy brains. Beef brains—well, not too many people even want beef brains these days, due to the terrifying nature of prions. And in fact, the sale of beef brains is severely limited by law for that very reason.
But pork brains… I figured I’d be able to find them at a Mexican meat market, because the tacos de sesos, they must be using pork brains instead of beef these days, right? But of the 4 I called, none of them carried brains of any kind. I finally found pork brains at a meat packing company with attached butcher shop.
My Minecraft-obsessed sons would not be surprised to learn they came in 4lb cubes.
YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED
Let’s back up for a second though. Why am I looking for brains?
It has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve been marathoning The Walking Dead lately. This month we’re covering an Ohio River Valley specialty called the Fried Brain sandwich.
Some months this gig is harder than others. I have to say, the thawed brains are not much more appetizing than the big frozen chunk.
At least, not to those of us with a pulse
My wife and 15 year old son both refused to consider eating one of these sandwiches. So did the 9 year old, who at least conceded that the brains didn’t smell as bad as they looked. The 18 year old was game though, and I guess so was I. At least, after I spent a good 20 minutes picking through the bowl, removing the stringy bits and chunks of skull.
Now I’m not going to go all Jules and say that this was some fucked-up repugnant shit. But I was having a hard time imagining eating it. I’ve eaten pork brains before, removed whole from the skull of a pig I’ve roasted, and I didn’t like it much then either. It at least looked and felt like food, though. Raw brain mush, studded with skull shards, seemed more like some kind of punishment.
People rave about these things though. So I followed a very simple recipe I found online, mixed up some brain batter, and fried up a couple of brain fritters for sandwiches.
Frying the brain fritter
What to eat in a fried brain sandwich? I had an idea, based on my up-close-and-personal experience with Midwestern cuisine, that pickles, raw onion, and mustard would be the standard, and the video linked above confirmed the pickles and raw onion. However, I read another source that recommended German-style pickled onions instead of the raw, and I found myself liking the idea.
Plus they kind of look like brains, a little. But tastier.
I plated them up, brain fritters overhanging the potato rolls I picked up (larger and sturdier than a normal hamburger bun), pickled red onion, dill pickle slices, and some ridged potato chips on the side.
Fried brain sandwich
Damian and I dug in, and… Brain is not the strongest-flavored organ meat around. It’s very mild–having never tried sweetbreads, I can’t make that direct comparison, but I picked up a hint of a liver-like flavor and a buttery sweetness. The most prominent flavors though were the pickles and the caraway seeds I used in the onion brine. There’s certainly a very creamy texture to the brains that was appealing set against the crisp exterior of the fritter, but by the time I reached the middle of the sandwich, things had gotten a little mushy.
Fried brain sandwich
I’m actually going to be in the Ohio River valley this coming weekend–a bit late to report on the state of the sandwich there and still publish in April, but I had thought I might check one out while I’m there and post a follow-up report as a comment on this post. Now, I’m thinking maybe not. I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t find it particularly appealing, and while I’m sure they do them much better in Evansville, Indiana–and maybe even in northern Kentucky, where I’ll be visiting–I’m just not sure I need to try the ideal fried brain sandwich. Once may be enough, this time.
I still have pretty good-sized bowl of brain batter left over, though. Any ideas what I can do with that?
I’m thinking brain waffles.
I like sandwiches.
I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great
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