Name: Fried Brains
Ingredients: brains; coarse sea salt; black pepper; hot grease; hot water

Fried Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the brains in several changes of cold water to draw out the blood and remove the membranes.

Fry and season

Fry the brains in hot grease.
Sprinkle the fried brains with salt and pepper.

Can and process

Pack the fried brains into No. 1 flat cans.
Thin the grease used for frying with a little hot water.
Add the thinned grease to the cans.
Cap the cans. Tip the cans.
Process the cans for 45 minutes at 250°F (120°C) or 15 pounds of steam pressure.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Brains: The main ingredient; soaking firms it and removes blood and membranes for a cleaner texture.
Hot grease: Frying medium that browns the brains and adds richness, then carries fat into the cans.
Hot water: Thins the frying grease so it flows easily into the cans.

The step that matters

Process the cans for the full time and temperature. Sealed cans of low-acid food can harbour spoilage bacteria. Enough heat for enough time, here 45 minutes at 250°F (120°C) or 15 pounds of steam pressure, is what makes the contents safe to store. Shortening the time or lowering the heat risks spoilage.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.