Indiana beef lover uses brains

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Mike Volkman is proud to be a carnivore. But there are times when a slab of meat won't cut it and the big man's appetite can only be satiated by a brain sandwich.

Not even the threat posed by the first known case of mad cow disease in the United States can keep the 60-year-old insurance agent from a date with fried cow brains on a bun.

"Mad cow has me a little shaky," Volkman said recently while seated at a corner table at the Hilltop Inn, looking at a plate-sized brain sandwich. "But, no guts, no glory."

Brain sandwiches are still on the menu in Evansville.

In this southern Indiana river city and the surrounding area, folks such as Volkman pride themselves on the local cuisine and their love of brain sandwiches, a delicacy passed down through the generations from German ancestors who settled here.

Whether made from cows or pigs, brain sandwiches still take pride of place in about a half-dozen local taverns and restaurants. They are among the featured items at an annual fall festival.

Mad cow disease hasn't kept local residents from enjoying their traditional sandwich smothered in onions and pickles and slathered with mustard or catsup.

"I think brain sandwiches will go on for a long, long time," said Volkman, who bit into the sandwich and tried not to splatter mustard and grease on his white polo shirt.

Across America, beef consumption appears to be holding steady as people refuse to panic, and nowhere is that more evident than in Evansville.

But food safety is creeping into local conversation in the wake of the news that a Holstein cow in Washington state tested positive in December for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

Cattle brains, spinal cords and lower intestines can contain abnormal proteins called prions that can cause BSE. It's believed that humans who eat brain or spinal material from an infected cow can develop variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a brain-wasting illness.

The USDA recently announced it will ban from the food supply brains and spinal tissue found in cattle older than 30 months.

"All kinds of animal brains are eaten by people all over the world, including the United States. I'm not sure it's all that advisable ever," said Dr. Raymond Roos, professor and chairman of the department of neurology at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

What advice would Roos offer to someone contemplating eating a brain sandwich for the first time?

"Why would you do that?" he said.

"I think the risk of eating this tissue may be no different now than it was a year ago or two years ago in the sense we only have one mad cow that was identified," Roos said. "And it's my understanding no central nervous system was taken from it. On the other hand, I have to say I think there are reasons to be cautious about considering eating central nervous system tissue, a year ago and now. It has to do with prion diseases."

In Chicago's ethnic communities, some eateries have chosen to take cow brains off the menu, but others say their customers are paying no mind to the new scare. Taqueria Vallarta, which specializes in cow's head tacos, still sells 50 to 60 brain-specific tacos a day, according to server Blanca Amecola. And the creamy, spicy cow brain delight called mughuz masala is still a hot seller at Sabri Nihari on Devon Avenue.

Hiram Roman, however, removed brain tacos from the menu at Lalo's Tacos in Logan Square as soon as he heard the news.

"We haven't served them since last week," Roman said. "I just don't want to take a chance, so I took them off for safety reasons."

Similarly, Shan Daod has removed mughuz masala, a South Asian dish, from his menu, where it has been the Monday special for years.

"Somebody told me about the mad cow disease last week and then we stopped serving it," explained the co-owner of Shan Restaurant and Grocers in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. "People are asking for it, but I tell them that we have a lot of other dishes here. If some people think they will catch mad cow I don't want to serve it."

Ibrihim El Khatib, who has run Chicago Zabiha Halal Meat Market for 15 years, said he has seen no dip in beef brain sales since last week's news.

"There is no difference," said El Khatib. "They are still on the market and people are still buying them. But, you know, a lot of my customers like goat brains better. They say that goat brains make you smart and give you energy, while cow brains can slow you down."

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And in Evansville, the clientele and staff are not ready to give up their brain sandwiches at the Hilltop, housed in a 19th-century stagecoach inn where the lighting is low, the sturdy oak bar is busy and fried goodies such as fish and chicken are heaped high on plates.

The brains are mixed in a batter of flour, salt, pepper, eggs and baking soda and fried in a cast-iron pan for about 20 minutes, the concoction puffing up like a fat pancake, about six inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inches high.

"You want to make sure it's well-done," said Don Snyder, owner-operator of the Hilltop Inn. "No one wants a medium-rare brain sandwich."

And what does the sandwich taste like?

"It doesn't taste like pork, it doesn't take like beef and it doesn't taste like chicken," Snyder said.<

A brain sandwich tastes a little like mushy scrambled eggs with a fried coating. Condiments add to the taste sensation. Those who enjoy the sandwiches say that if folks didn't know what they were eating, they would swear they were great.

At $5.50 an order, the jumbo brain sandwich is a steady seller, Snyder said. The restaurant goes through about 150 pounds of brains a week. When prices spike, as they did a few years back, Snyder makes bulk purchases.

"I buy brains by the pallet," Snyder said.

Snyder, who eats a brain sandwich a month, said he is closely monitoring the mad cow disease reports but remains confident in his food supply.

"My customers are all aware of the situation, but they're not concerned," he said. "If there was anything I felt uncomfortable about, I'd stop serving them. I eat them, too."

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Randy Graves, a Hilltop Inn cook, doesn't eat the sandwiches. But the burly cook has no problem ladling out the pink glutinous brain batter from a bucket.

Into a frying pan it goes, swimming in a generous portion of oil.

"They're not good for you at all," Graves said of the sandwiches. Most people who eat the sandwiches acknowledge that they're not for everyone and they're certainly not an everyday item.

Graves laughed as he recalled one customer who ordered a brain sandwich but then suffered a mild heart attack before the plate came out of the kitchen. The man, Graves said, returned from the hospital to pick up his brain sandwich.

The restaurant's all-time brain sandwich takeout order was 21 to go, Snyder said.

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On a recent day, the first brain sandwich was ordered at 11:30 a.m. Six other orders rolled in during lunch.

"Don't knock them until you try them," said Benjamin Boone, 53, a machine operator who arrived for the takeout order.

Boone, who eats the sandwich three times yearly, said he thought about the threat from mad cow before placing his order.

"But on the same token, I believe in God and I think he'll take care of me," he said.

Three generations of the Burgdorf family have no qualms about eating brain sandwiches or being in the presence of others who are downing them.

Jack Burgdorf, 73, and his son David, 44, each went for the brain sandwich as the family gathered for a holiday lunch.

"I've been eating them 55, 60 years," said Jack Burgdorf, a retired tool engineer. "I'm not worried. They would have to have more than one case (of mad cow) before I would get concerned. If they have more incidents I'll be cautious."

David Burgdorf, an office facilities manager, lives in Washington state, where the diseased cow was detected.

"You think about it (mad cow) if you've been reading a newspaper," he said, pronouncing himself "satisfied" with the sandwich.

David Burgdorf said he thought the brains were from a pig.

But at the Hilltop Inn, the owners stick with tradition.

Their brains come from the cow.