Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (87 page)

Remove any hard parts from the heart and cut into 1-inch cubes. Combine remaining ingredients and marinate heart cubes in the mixture for about 24 hours in the refrigerator. Place cubes on skewers and cook about 7 minutes to a side on the barbecue or under the grill.

In the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, there are several tribes living along the Nile. . .. There are wonderful hunters and warriors among them. These tribes use milk, blood and meat from cattle and large quantities of animal life from the Nile River. Some of the tribes are very tall, particularly the Neurs. The women are often six feet or over and the men seven feet, some of them reaching seven and a half feet in height. I was particularly interested in their food habits both because of their high immunity to dental caries, which approximated one hundred percent, and because of their physical development. I learned that they have a belief, which to them is their religion; namely, that every man and woman has a soul, which resides in the liver, and that a man's character and physical growth depend upon how well he feeds that soul by eating the livers of animals. The liver is so sacred that it may not be touched by human hands. It is accordingly always handled with their spear or saber, or with specially prepared forked sticks. It is eaten both raw and cooked. Weston Price, DDS
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

PREPARATION OF BRAINS

Brains are highly valued in many ethnic cultures. Europeans formerly added a little chopped brain to baby food to give their children good memories. But today we hear dire warnings that brain consumption may cause a rare, insidious degeneration of the brain tissues called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The theory is that this disease can be transmitted to humans from cattle that are infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) due to feeding cattle animal parts in their feedlot rations. However, the evidence indicates that the true cause of CJD is mineral deficiencies combined with the toxic effects of organophosphate insecticides. In any event, BSE has not occurred in U.S. herds and there is no reason to eschew brains, a particularly nutrient-dense traditional food.

Brains have much the same texture as sweetbreads but they are more delicate. Like all organ meats, brains must be very fresh. Wash the brains, cover with cold filtered water to which you have added a little vinegar and soak for about 2 hours, changing the water once or twice. This extracts the blood and helps remove any impurities. Remove, rinse and place in a saucepan. Cover with water or
chicken stock
, add 1 teaspoon of salt and juice of ½ lemon, bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from poaching liquid and allow to cool. Using a sharp knife, carefully remove all loose tissue, skin, fat and membranes. You may now place on a plate or platter, cover with parchment paper (See
Sources
) and place a weighted flat plate or cookie sheet on top. Let the brains flatten in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Cows frequently partake in the bizarre habit of eating their colleagues' afterbirth after calving, and I was particularly intrigued to watch my own home-reared cows, free of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), positively relishing the delicacies of afterbirth tissues derived from a group of pedigree cows that I purchased into my farm in 1989. As the majority of these imported cows went on to develop BSE, it is interesting that BSE has not surfaced in my home-reared cows, despite their overzealous exposure to the allegedly "infectious" blood and lymph found in the afterbirths of the BSE cows. Other farmers sharing the same experience, report the same outcome.

Another anecdote hails form the farming community of Shetland, who boast of the fact that the island folk are free of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, despite their ancient custom of eating potted sheep's brain. Interestingly, scrapie disease has been rife in the sheep flock on Shetland for centuries. Mark Purdey
Animal Pharm

SAUTEED BRAINS

Serves 6

1½ pounds prepared calves brains (see above)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 cup unbleached flour

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Cut the brains into 1-inch slices. Whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper together. Marinate brains in the mixture for an hour or so. Remove from marinade, pat dry and dredge in flour. In a heavy skillet, saute the slices a few at a time in butter and olive oil. Transfer to a heated platter and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve. Serve with
chunky tomato sauce
or a lacto-fermented condiment, such as
pickled cucumbers
or
pickled beets
.

Defects due to deficiencies in vitamin A in the diet of dairy animals. . .have been reported upon by Meigs and Converse as follows: In 1932 we reported from Beltsville that farm rations frequently fed to calves may be dangerously low in vitamin A. . .. Of six calves born to these cows, two were dead, one was unable to stand and died shortly after birth, and three were both weak and blind. Weston Price, DDS
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

BRAINS IN WINE SAUCE

Serves 6

1½ pounds prepared calves brains (
brains
)

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ pound fresh mushrooms, washed, well dried and sliced

½ cup shallots, finely chopped

1 cup red wine

2 cups
beef stock

2 tablespoons arrowroot mixed with 2 tablespoons filtered water

6 round or
triangle croutons

Slice the brains into
³
/
₈
-inch slices and set aside. In a heavy skillet, saute the mushrooms until browned in 2 tablespoons each butter and olive oil. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add remaining butter and oil to the pan and saute the shallots. Pour in wine and stock, bring to a rapid boil and skim. Allow sauce to reduce to about half. Spoonful by spoonful, add the arrowroot mixture until desired thickness is obtained. Strain the sauce into a saucepan. Add the brain slices and mushrooms and simmer briefly until they are warmed through.

To serve, place a crouton on each plate, carefully place brain slices on top and spoon sauce over.

In the case of BSE where no viral cause has been identified, it is illogical to assume that one animal has to eat another in order to catch the same disease. Initially, the direction of any epidemiological research program should follow elementary logic and investigate the most likely assumption that the various different species of mammal suffering from the same disease have all been exposed to the same causal factor in the environment. But it seems that nobody has investigated this route. Sheep did not cannibalize each other to catch scrapie, nor did wild deer in the Rocky Mountains cannibalize each other to catch their BSE-equivalent disease, chronic wasting disease. . ..

One of the most relevant long standing observations on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemiology is that people who are occupationally involved with pets and farm animals are at greater risk of developing CJD. . .. During the 1980's and early 1990's, cattle and cats (the species of animals that have developed BSE) were exclusively treated with systemically acting types of organophosphate (OP) insecticide which were designed to penetrate the entire physiological system of the animal, transforming the bloodstream into a toxic medium so as to kill off any unwanted parasites present. . .. Systemic OP's are recognized as exerting their toxic effect by entering the central nervous system and deforming the molecular shape of various nerve proteins. . ..

OP's are known to generate a highly reactive type of free radical in the tissues that they intoxicate. And it is this free radical legacy of OP poisoning which is capable of instigating a chain reaction of lethal attack on nerve membranes and proteins in the central nerves of susceptible individuals. Mark Purdey
Animal Pharm

BRAIN OMELET

Serves 4

¹
/
₃
-½ cup prepared calves brains (
brains
), finely chopped

4 eggs

½ cup parsley, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

sea salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Whisk eggs and stir in brains, parsley and onions. Season to taste. Melt butter and olive oil in a large, well-seasoned skillet. When butter froths, pour in egg mixture. Cook several minutes until omelet sets, then fold in half. Slide onto a heated platter and serve.

That [the Indians] had knowledge of the use of different organs and tissues of the animals for providing a defense against certain of the affections of the body, which we speak of as degenerative diseases, was surprising. When I asked an old Indian, through an interpreter, why the Indians did not get scurvy, he replied promptly that that was a white man's disease. I asked whether it was possible for the Indians to get scurvy. He replied that it was, but said that the Indians know how to prevent it and the white man does not. When asked why he did not tell the white man how, his reply was that the white man knew too much to ask the Indian anything. I then asked him if he would tell me. He said he would if the chief said he might. He went to see the chief and returned in about an hour, saying that the chief said he could tell me because I was a friend of the Indians and had come to tell the Indians not to eat the food in the white man's store. He took me by the hand and led me to a log where we both sat down. He then described how when the Indian kills a moose he opens it up and at the back of the moose just above the kidney there are what he described as two small balls in the fat. These he said the Indian would take and cut up into as many pieces as there were little and big Indians in the family and each one would eat his piece. They would eat also the wall of the second stomach. By eating these parts of the animal the Indians would keep free from scurvy, which is due to the lack of vitamin C. The Indians were getting vitamin C from the adrenal glands and organs. Modern science has very recently discovered that the adrenal glands are the richest source of vitamin C in all animal or plant tissues. Weston Price, DDS
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

SAUTEED CHICKEN LIVERS

Serves 4

1 pound fresh chicken livers

1 cup unbleached flour

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup dry white wine

1 cup
chicken stock

1 tablespoon gelatin (See
Sources
), optional

pinch of powdered sage

Carefully remove veins from chicken livers and slice. Dredge in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper. In a heavy skillet, saute slices, a few at a time, in butter and olive oil until golden. Remove and keep warm in oven. Pour out browning fat and add wine, stock, optional gelatin and sage to the pan. Bring to a rapid boil, skim and reduce to about half. Lower heat and return livers to the sauce to warm through. Serve with
basic brown rice
or
triangle croutons
.

CHICKEN LIVERS WITH HAZELNUTS

Serves 4

1 pound fresh chicken livers

1 cup unbleached flour

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon pepper

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

²
/
₃
cup
crispy hazelnuts
, chopped

1 bunch green onions, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups
chicken stock

1 tablespoon gelatin (See
Sources
), optional