Fried Lambs‘ Brains – Eat, Little Hen

April 19, 2025

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Observe this simple and straight-forward recipe for golden and crispy Fried Lambs’ Brains.

fried lambs brains

When the parents at Cathay Pacific requested me to cook dinner, model and {photograph} fried lambs’ brains for an upcoming version of Discovery, their in-flight journal, I used to be considerably nervous. And that was earlier than they disclosed that the accompanying article can be written by Umberto Bombana, the top chef at 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana, the one Italian restaurant exterior of Italy to carry 3 Michelin stars.

So not solely had I agreed to cook dinner one thing I had by no means cooked or eaten earlier than, I needed to put together and magnificence the dish primarily based on one thing a 3 star Michelin chef thought-about to be his favorite dish. Positive! Straightforward peasy!

Earlier than I accepted the project, I needed to make some calls to make sure that I may supply lambs’ brains in Zurich. The 2 predominant butchers in Zurich metropolis rapidly and bluntly declined my request to position a particular order for lambs’ brains. Brains are very troublesome, they each mentioned, though they couldn’t clarify in clear phrases what the issue was.

My final and closing possibility, which in hindsight ought to have been my first name, was the butcher I go to practically each Friday on the farmers’ markets at Bürkliplatz. Maybe it was my poor German which made him really feel sorry for this foreigner who sounded fairly determined to purchase part of an animal which most Swiss wouldn’t need to see or eat (I requested for Lammgehirn when it’s truly known as Lammhirn). Or maybe he was merely shocked to obtain such an uncommon order. However I used to be immediately relieved when he confirmed that he may present me with some lambs’ brains, besides that he couldn’t assure what number of as a result of that trusted what number of lambs can be slaughtered within the coming week. So not solely was he the butcher, he was additionally the farmer.

There’s a lot consolation in understanding the supply of the meat which you might be consuming, in addition to shopping for from farmers and butchers who take satisfaction of their work and produce. And for farmers, particularly, it should be reassuring when the entire a part of the animal can be utilized, that nothing goes to waste.

I can’t say that it was simple to deal with the uncooked lambs’ brains, however I obtained on with the job and I’m reasonably pleased with the end result. In my thoughts, I felt that it was no completely different to cooking some other a part of the animal, so I pretended that I used to be cooking hen nuggets.

And to be sincere, the method of cooking lambs’ brains isn’t so completely different, besides that you must soak the brains first in a whole lot of water to extract the blood (sorry for the gory particulars however I’ve spared you the step-by-step pictures!!), after which poach them in boiling water to cook dinner the brains and make them agency sufficient to deep-fry. As soon as they’ve been poached, you merely dip them in overwhelmed egg and coat them in flour, earlier than immersing them in sizzling oil to grow to be golden and crispy on the skin.

In his article, Chef Umberto Bombana writes about how his favorite fried lambs’ brains is served with Roman-Type Fried Artichokes. In fact, Cathay Pacific needed me to incorporate artichokes within the photograph, and so this photograph shoot was truly comprised on two totally new dishes for me. Fortunately, the Roman-Type Fried Artichokes was comparatively simple to organize, and you may examine that recipe in my publish right here.

When you have tried consuming fried lambs’ brains earlier than, I’d love to listen to from you within the feedback under!

In case you are flying with Cathay Pacific or Cathay Dragon this month (June 2017), you’ll be able to learn the article and discover my photograph of their in-flight journal, Discovery. In case you are not flying, you’ll be able to view the complete article right here or on the Discovery web site.

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