Camp Skillet Brains
Soaked overnight at home, poached and crisped over the fire in a cast iron pan.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 55
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 750 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Lamb or pork brains | 1 lb | ask a butcher to split the head, or buy them already removed |
|---|---|---|
| Salt | 2 tbsp | 1 tbsp for the soak, the rest for seasoning |
| White vinegar | 2 tbsp | goes in the poaching water |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Fine cornmeal | 1/3 cup | the dredge; keeps it gluten-free |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | |
| Pickled peppers | 1/4 cup | jarred, drained at camp |
| Dried oregano or parsley | 1 tsp |
Method
- At home, the day before: cover the brains in cold water with 1 tbsp salt and refrigerate 12 to 24 hours. Change the water two or three times. The water will come off pink at first and should run close to clear by the end.
- Drain, pat dry, seal in a bag, and pack them on ice. Cook them within two days.
- In camp, build a bed of coals and set a pot on the grate. Bring 750 ml of water to a simmer with the vinegar and bay leaf.
- Slide the brains in and hold it at a bare simmer for 8 minutes. They should firm up and turn opaque. Lift them out and let them drain and cool enough to handle.
- Cut into thick slabs. Toss in cornmeal seasoned with salt and pepper.
- Pour off the water, dry the pot or swap in a skillet, and heat the oil over the coals. Fry the slabs 2 to 3 minutes a side until the crust sets.
- Scatter the pickled peppers and dried herbs over the top and eat straight from the pan.
This is a cooler recipe, not a pack recipe. Brains are perishable and mostly water, so there is no dry version of them and no shelf-stable substitute worth pretending about. What makes it a camp dish is that all the fussy work happens at home the night before, and the fire only has to do two simple things.
The overnight soak is the part people skip and then regret. Brains hold a lot of blood, and blood is what turns them grey and gives them the metallic edge that puts people off. Cold water and a few changes pull it out. The short poach afterward is structural: raw brains are too soft to dredge or turn in a pan, and eight minutes in acidulated water firms them enough to hold a crust. Fry them straight from the cooler and you get scrambled custard instead.
Packing
Soak and drain at home so camp is just poach and fry. The brains ride in a doubled zip bag at the bottom of the cooler, on ice, not floating in meltwater. Cornmeal, salt, and pepper get premixed into one small jar. Oil in a dropper bottle, peppers in their own jar.
Variations
- Skip the fry and eat the poached slabs cold, chopped with the pickled peppers and a little oil, like a chicken salad.
- Beef or goat brains work the same way but are larger and want 10 minutes in the poach.
https://foragerchef.com/how-to-cook-brains