Harveylives
01-02-2004, 10:20 PM
The offal truth: People enjoy calf brains
Tue Dec 30, 9:37 PM ET
By Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - You can boil it in salted water, drain and chop it into neat little chunks, and then scramble it with a dozen eggs and three tablespoons of butter -- or you could coat it in cream, cheese and spices and fry to a crispy golden brown.
Mmmmmm, yummy, brains! With eggs or fried as fritters, they are just like grandma used to make but after the last few days, you may not want to eat them ever again.
The discovery of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Washington state has led to renewed warnings that people should eschew cow's brains, as that is the organ most affected by the disease and among the most likely parts to spread the ailment to humans.
Yet for some, according to one historian of American food, the brain of the calf is something still to be enjoyed.
"People eat calves' brains, that's what you buy at the store," Ruth Adams Bronz, a cookbook author and former restaurant operator in New York and elsewhere, told Reuters. "What cow brains are used for are what they call 'meat byproducts,' in things like hot dogs and bologna."
U.S. officials have recalled 10,000 pounds (4,545 kgs) of beef. The meat, which came from the infected cow and 19 others slaughtered on December 9, was shipped to eight states and Guam, though there has been no recall of any brain products.
A spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute said there is no risk of BSE (news - web sites) from eating calves' brains because of their young age, which does not give the illness enough time to incubate.
Recipes like brains and eggs and Cervello in Frittata Montano (calf brain fritters) are a delicacy in this country, Bronz said, but not for the faint of heart or those with fluttery stomachs.
"It's not very common in this country. People don't like offal in this country. it's hard to sell," she said.
MIXED POPULARITY
Popular restaurants across the country have been known to serve calf brains, like TV personality Mario Batali's Babbo in New York (where former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl compared the calf brain ravioli to "clouds wrapped in tender sheets") and the well-regarded Esparza's in Portland, where calf brain tacos are a highlight.
But at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, a staple of the local working-class Hispanic community, "sesos" (cow brains) were in short supply. Only one taco stand advertised sesos, but a cook there said they stopped selling them because of slack demand.
At Economy Meats, which offers parts of various animals from head to toe under the sign "Carne Fresca" (Fresh Meat), a counterman said they regularly sell sesos but, for reasons unknown, had not had a shipment in two weeks.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (the scientific name of mad cow disease) is a fatal ailment that destroys the brains of infected cattle. Humans contract a form of it, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (news - web sites), by eating tissue from the brains, spinal cords or central nervous systems of infected animals.
At least 137 people died from the human variant after mad cow disease struck herds in Britain and Europe a decade ago.
Calves are not the only providers of "brain food," though. Sheep brains, sold in tins or served roasted or baked, are not uncommon in parts of the world. In the American South, especially places like Kentucky, squirrel brain is considered a delicacy, though there is some evidence of a "mad squirrel disease" from eating them.
"The USDA needs to take brain and spinal cord out from the food supply all together," said Will Hueston, veterinarian at the University of Minnesota.
But Bronz said some meat companies might be reluctant to give up brain matter.
"Brains are a real good filler," she said. "If you can grind them into meat ... they won't disturb the taste of the muscle meat."
Tue Dec 30, 9:37 PM ET
By Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - You can boil it in salted water, drain and chop it into neat little chunks, and then scramble it with a dozen eggs and three tablespoons of butter -- or you could coat it in cream, cheese and spices and fry to a crispy golden brown.
Mmmmmm, yummy, brains! With eggs or fried as fritters, they are just like grandma used to make but after the last few days, you may not want to eat them ever again.
The discovery of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Washington state has led to renewed warnings that people should eschew cow's brains, as that is the organ most affected by the disease and among the most likely parts to spread the ailment to humans.
Yet for some, according to one historian of American food, the brain of the calf is something still to be enjoyed.
"People eat calves' brains, that's what you buy at the store," Ruth Adams Bronz, a cookbook author and former restaurant operator in New York and elsewhere, told Reuters. "What cow brains are used for are what they call 'meat byproducts,' in things like hot dogs and bologna."
U.S. officials have recalled 10,000 pounds (4,545 kgs) of beef. The meat, which came from the infected cow and 19 others slaughtered on December 9, was shipped to eight states and Guam, though there has been no recall of any brain products.
A spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute said there is no risk of BSE (news - web sites) from eating calves' brains because of their young age, which does not give the illness enough time to incubate.
Recipes like brains and eggs and Cervello in Frittata Montano (calf brain fritters) are a delicacy in this country, Bronz said, but not for the faint of heart or those with fluttery stomachs.
"It's not very common in this country. People don't like offal in this country. it's hard to sell," she said.
MIXED POPULARITY
Popular restaurants across the country have been known to serve calf brains, like TV personality Mario Batali's Babbo in New York (where former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl compared the calf brain ravioli to "clouds wrapped in tender sheets") and the well-regarded Esparza's in Portland, where calf brain tacos are a highlight.
But at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, a staple of the local working-class Hispanic community, "sesos" (cow brains) were in short supply. Only one taco stand advertised sesos, but a cook there said they stopped selling them because of slack demand.
At Economy Meats, which offers parts of various animals from head to toe under the sign "Carne Fresca" (Fresh Meat), a counterman said they regularly sell sesos but, for reasons unknown, had not had a shipment in two weeks.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (the scientific name of mad cow disease) is a fatal ailment that destroys the brains of infected cattle. Humans contract a form of it, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (news - web sites), by eating tissue from the brains, spinal cords or central nervous systems of infected animals.
At least 137 people died from the human variant after mad cow disease struck herds in Britain and Europe a decade ago.
Calves are not the only providers of "brain food," though. Sheep brains, sold in tins or served roasted or baked, are not uncommon in parts of the world. In the American South, especially places like Kentucky, squirrel brain is considered a delicacy, though there is some evidence of a "mad squirrel disease" from eating them.
"The USDA needs to take brain and spinal cord out from the food supply all together," said Will Hueston, veterinarian at the University of Minnesota.
But Bronz said some meat companies might be reluctant to give up brain matter.
"Brains are a real good filler," she said. "If you can grind them into meat ... they won't disturb the taste of the muscle meat."