nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Goat/Lamb Brains, Any Time/Temp Hints?

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I picked up 7 goat/lamb brains today (8 actually if you count the one still the sheep's head, but that is a different post) and I was wondering if anyone has experience in sous viding this oft overlooked goodness.

The finished brain will either be: crumbed, deep fried and served as part as an Offal Waffle (think fried chicken and waffles, sans chicken but covered in fried offal goodness), or: sliced and shingled on toast topped with 62.5C egg and brown butter hollandaise. The first method will require a soft custard texture while the second will be much firmer so it can be sliced.

I will try one brain at 60C and see what happens.

Find more posts tagged with

Ingredients

Comments

Chris_Young_80640

Hmmm, I can't actually say I know "best bet" cooking temperature for brains offhand. Photos and your results would be very welcome.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

For those that have been tossing and turning, not been able to sleep at night wondering what time/temp you need to cook brains at for your next dinner, I have a starting point.

I broke the bank and purchased 7 goat/lamb brains for $7.67 at a local Halal butchers. Each brain weighed just under 100g out of the bag. After cleaning/trimming each weighed just under 80g.

As a starting point I made Fergus Henderson's "Cold Lamb's Brains on Toast" recipe from one of his books. From here I bagged a brain with some butter and threw it in a water bath.

It became obvious with the first SV brain that texture would be an issue. The image below shows one brain with the top lobe placed in 94C water (no bag) for 30 seconds vs the bottom lobe that is raw. The poached lobe was much firmer to the touch even after this short time in hot water.

I ended up cooking and tasting six brains. I will redo the experiment after I purchase a submersible needle Type K thermocouple. I had to remove the brain from the water bath to find the internal temperature. This was a messy and time consuming task. Based on the large size of the thermocouple and the small size of the brain meant getting an accurate internal temperature was difficult.

Starting from the right and moving left.

Water poached brain, 8 minutes, ~94C water, no bag, internal temp at 8 min 84C. This was the benchmark brain. The texture was firm to the touch but very yielding when biting. A firm crème brûlée is the closest mouth feel I can think of. The lobe deformed very slightly when cutting, but sprung back to shape once cut. The folds in the brain are obvious when cut. The brain was uniform in colour edge to edge with a very slight pinkness in the center. Internal temp when removed from the water was 84C although I believe this reading was low.

Raw brain. Very delicate to the touch. Easy to tear with rough handling. Pink in colour. Brain folds not seen. I did not taste.

SV brain, 60C, 20 mins, internal temp 10 mins 35C, 20 mins 57C. Firmer than a raw brain but not as firm as the 30 sec poached brain. "Graying" starting to occur on the outside but one would call the brain pink not grey. Lobe deforms when cut and very slowly moves back into shape. Brain folds not obvious. Uniform pink ("greyer"than raw) edge to edge with greyish patches on the outside. Strong "offal" taste and the mouth feel was not totally pleasant. Either I left a membrane on, or the heat did not break one down as I could feel one in my mouth.

Thank you auto save as Firefox crashed part way though the above paragraph and I only lost 6 words.

SV brain, 65C, 22 mins, internal temp 10 min 54C, 15 min 60C, 22 min 62C. Very much like the 60C brain but a little firmer and greyer. Brain folds starting to become obvious. Less "offal" in taste and no membrane.

SV brain, 70C, 20 mins, internal temp 10 min 62C, 20min 69C. Outside colour very close to the benchmark brain. Slightly less firm than benchmark. Can see brain folds. More grey than pink inside. Creamy texture with nice mouth feel. "Offal" taste is there but not unpleasant.

SV brain, 75C, 15 min, internal temp 10 min 73C, 15min 73C. The tape in the image has the wrong time written. A firmer and greyer version of the 70C brain. Outside colour the same as the benchmark. Not quite as firm as the benchmark. Looks like the benchmark but with a pink hue. A very pleasant creamy texture would be best texture for frying.

SV brain, 85C, 10mins, internal temp 83C. Hard to tell the difference to the benchmark in all ways. A slight pink tint in the thickest part.

30 second poach 94C no bag. When cut acts like raw brain. The grey is less than 1mm thick on edge.

The 75C brain was the best for me for fying, while the 85C would work well for slicing.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Brains SV at 75C for 15 mins in a bit of butter then cut into bite size bits (one brain in to four bits worked well), then a standard crumb and very hot oil until GBD is very nice.