Feasting on brain sandwich

Alton Brown rides again and this time, he rides with a little food for thought.  On Saturday’s, August 5th, episode of Feasting on Asphault, Alton chowed down on a brain sandwich.  Honestly, I can’t remember anything else from the episode besides the valiant effort he made to look as if he enjoyed the sandwich.  If you noticed, they only showed him eating two bites of it.  It looked like a big fried donut, so maybe it didn’t really taste like anything except fried batter.  If you would like to try this sandwich for yourself and can’t find a restaurant that serves it, I found the recipe online.  It took a while to fish it out but I found one on RecipeLand.com .  Try it!  Let me know what you think.  This one looks a bit too exotic for me to attempt, but I would love to hear any opinions on the sandwich.

Aug 7, 2006 at 9:42 am PST | From: Alton Brown | 

7 Comments »

  1. I think it’s hard to find brain recipes in the last decade due to the minor outbreak, but massive scare of Mad Cow. Mad Cow is caused by “Prions” which are irregularly shaped protiens that lodge themselve into your brain and cause damage to the neural structure. Even cooking them to 400 degrees does not destroy these prions!

    The last time I made fried brains was sometime in 1987. Hard to find calf’s brains in the supermarket these days, if not impossible. I rarely find lamb’s brains in some indian restaurants in NYC.

    Recipe was simple, peel off the membrain and boil in a court boullion for 15 minutes or til firm. Plunge into ice water. Slice into half inch thick slices, bread them as you would any other meat or fish (Alton would use Panko bread crumbs I’m guessing) and fry. Salt them as soon as they get out of the fryer and drain on paper towels. Enjoy!

    Comment by BillHoo — August 21, 2006 @ 3:34 am

  2. I grew up in St. Louis and remember my mother cooking us fried brain sandwiches. Perhaps we were too young to be put off by the thought of eating brains. We absolutly loved them! To this day I still crave having one. Crispy fried lightly salted outside, hot n juicy on the inside. Heaven on a bun for sure! If only people would let go of their preconcieved misconceptions and try one the might find it delicious… To bad Mad cow fear ruined a good sandwich..

    Comment by Chris Matthews — January 13, 2007 @ 2:32 pm

  3. my grandmas are always saying that they had brain sandwiches as kids. i never belived them untill we went to evensville and i tryed one. i tryed telling my lab group that thier is such things as brain sandwiches and my teacher didnt know. so i told them i would print off a recipie… i finaly found one..

    Comment by brandon — March 19, 2007 @ 1:35 pm

  4. The best brain sandwich i have ever had was at the Hilltop Inn located in Evansville, IN. Fantastic!!

    Comment by Randy Hilgeman — September 14, 2007 @ 9:55 am

  5. I am from Evansville and regularly dine at the Hilltop…great food! I used to eat brain sandwiches years ago when I didn’t realize what they were…have not had one for years and the “thought” of it freaks me out so I haven’t given in to trying one lately.

    Comment by Angela Reinhart — December 24, 2007 @ 3:17 pm

  6. I saw that episode where Alton Brown ate the brain sandwich. I was etremely disappointed that he did not like it. For some strange reason, I really wanted him to like it. When I was young, I would ride my bike to a small tavern that had a family dining section. I would get a brain sandwich with onion, horseradish and mayo, an order of fries and a Mountain Dew to wash it all down. That was, by far, my favorite meal. I crave them to this day even though it has been 20 years since I had one. There is no way that the sandwich that Alton tried was as good as the ones I ate as a child. The tavern is still in business, but the brains are long gone!

    Comment by Tim — February 19, 2008 @ 10:42 am

  7. I too would ride my bike up to the tavern up the street and go to the family room where i wouuld sit and enjoy a brain sandwich a order of onion rings and a ski or double cola
    But then I’m in Evansville, In. were that episode was taped and i know the Hilltop tavern very well, hey that sounds like a good idea for supper tonight, good eats

    Comment by Darrin — May 10, 2008 @ 1:13 am

 

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