Feb 19, 2024 01:19 AM
(This post was last modified: Feb 19, 2024 01:27 AM by C C.)
RELATED TOPIC (scivillage): Deer are beta-testing a nightmare disease
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In defense of eating brains
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hi...in-as-food
EXCERPTS: Traditionally, many cultures have regarded animal brains as a delicacy, and not just because of an ethos of zero waste. Brain’s texture and flavor—rich, fatty, and delicate—are unique, and as cuts of meat go, this one is relatively hard to come by. [...] The brain’s nutritional content is unique, too: It’s rich in several nutrients that are essential for brain health.
[...] In many parts of the world, people never forgot the value of eating brain. ... Yet for many in the modern United States, there’s something uniquely unpalatable about eating brains, a squeamishness that goes back only a few generations. Before the mid-20th century, Americans treated the brain like any other cut of meat...
[...] By the late 20th century, the American palate had decisively shifted away from brains due to several historical factors. ... The perfecting of the commercial deep-fryer increased consumer preference for crispy, crunchy textures, not easily achieved with pillowy-soft brains. ... scientists established the link between cholesterol and heart disease in the 1950s...
[...] Another factor was a change in the attitude towards organ meats in general in the United States and some other Western countries, such as the United Kingdom. In the postwar boom of the late 20th century ... red meat became ... “the symbol of American success,” [...and...] organ meats started to be looked down on as the food of poverty and struggle. Offal was also increasingly associated with immigrants, including those of America’s past, whose descendants had since prospered and joined the red meat–eating mainstream...
[...] By the late 20th century, despite the best efforts of open-minded celebrity chefs ... who recommended different cooking times for lamb, pork, and beef brains, many Americans took for granted the idea that brains were not something “civilized” people ate...
[...] In this shock-horror context, monkey brain served as a stand-in for the ultimate off-limits delicacy: human brain, still the favorite snack of many monsters in popular culture. ... But there have been times and places where eating a human brain was not only acceptable, but customary...
[...The...] custom of brain-eating had uniquely devastating consequences that illustrate another reason for the modern American aversion to brains: the fear of disease. ... Scientists now believe that the initial case of kuru was a spontaneously-developed prion disease, which spread to Fore women and children through endocannibalism of brain tissue. ... This was the first, but not the only, time in the 20th century that the ugly specter of prion disease reared its head in connection with brain-eating...
[...] Modern proponents of eating brain emphasize that the organ is not inherently dangerous as long as precautions are followed.
[...] Why haven’t we seen more prion disease outbreaks like kuru and BSE among brain-eaters? Schutt offers a possible answer. Most modern humans, he explains, “probably have some type of immunity, because in ancient history, our ancestors were exposed to this disease through cannibalism.”
[...] In recent years, a growing number of food writers and recipe creators, like Farzin and VanHouten, have been working to bring animal organ meats back into the spotlight... (MORE - missing details)
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In defense of eating brains
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hi...in-as-food
EXCERPTS: Traditionally, many cultures have regarded animal brains as a delicacy, and not just because of an ethos of zero waste. Brain’s texture and flavor—rich, fatty, and delicate—are unique, and as cuts of meat go, this one is relatively hard to come by. [...] The brain’s nutritional content is unique, too: It’s rich in several nutrients that are essential for brain health.
[...] In many parts of the world, people never forgot the value of eating brain. ... Yet for many in the modern United States, there’s something uniquely unpalatable about eating brains, a squeamishness that goes back only a few generations. Before the mid-20th century, Americans treated the brain like any other cut of meat...
[...] By the late 20th century, the American palate had decisively shifted away from brains due to several historical factors. ... The perfecting of the commercial deep-fryer increased consumer preference for crispy, crunchy textures, not easily achieved with pillowy-soft brains. ... scientists established the link between cholesterol and heart disease in the 1950s...
[...] Another factor was a change in the attitude towards organ meats in general in the United States and some other Western countries, such as the United Kingdom. In the postwar boom of the late 20th century ... red meat became ... “the symbol of American success,” [...and...] organ meats started to be looked down on as the food of poverty and struggle. Offal was also increasingly associated with immigrants, including those of America’s past, whose descendants had since prospered and joined the red meat–eating mainstream...
[...] By the late 20th century, despite the best efforts of open-minded celebrity chefs ... who recommended different cooking times for lamb, pork, and beef brains, many Americans took for granted the idea that brains were not something “civilized” people ate...
[...] In this shock-horror context, monkey brain served as a stand-in for the ultimate off-limits delicacy: human brain, still the favorite snack of many monsters in popular culture. ... But there have been times and places where eating a human brain was not only acceptable, but customary...
[...The...] custom of brain-eating had uniquely devastating consequences that illustrate another reason for the modern American aversion to brains: the fear of disease. ... Scientists now believe that the initial case of kuru was a spontaneously-developed prion disease, which spread to Fore women and children through endocannibalism of brain tissue. ... This was the first, but not the only, time in the 20th century that the ugly specter of prion disease reared its head in connection with brain-eating...
[...] Modern proponents of eating brain emphasize that the organ is not inherently dangerous as long as precautions are followed.
[...] Why haven’t we seen more prion disease outbreaks like kuru and BSE among brain-eaters? Schutt offers a possible answer. Most modern humans, he explains, “probably have some type of immunity, because in ancient history, our ancestors were exposed to this disease through cannibalism.”
[...] In recent years, a growing number of food writers and recipe creators, like Farzin and VanHouten, have been working to bring animal organ meats back into the spotlight... (MORE - missing details)
