Confession time. While I am not a believer that the detriments of eating in an unhealthful way can be erased by exercise, I tend to do most of more “adventurous” eating on the days when I do my long run – non-sensical, I know, but the lapsed Catholic guilt falls, with gallons of sweat, with each step. This past weekend, in a panic to get a time good enough to qualify for a priority corral for the upcoming marathon, I ran in the North Shore Half Marathon. Not only was it exceedingly long, but it was exceedingly hot, so after finishing with a 14 minute personal best, my food governor was off.

I must have been slightly affected by the heat because when I walked into the Butcher & Larder wearing my race gear, including my bib, I ordered a deli container of brains. I had eaten brains in coppa di testa and porchetta di testa as well as fried at Schwa. I do not remember loving them, but something moved me to try them again, this time, as they are likely eaten most traditionally, scrambled with eggs.

In a moment straight out of Portlandia, I was alerted that the brains came from a pair of Berkshires. While neither Rob nor Chris knew the name of the pig, they both knew the farmer and knew that the brains would need to be soaked in milk to leech out some of the blood from the brains.

Once this was done, I knew based on the amount of brains that I could not only scramble some into eggs, but I could also fry one up, crusted with Geechie Boy cornmeal, for a little extra texture.

Now, let’s talk about texture. Brains have a “distinctive” texture. Think fluffier than scrambled eggs with a little more viscosity. It is not my favorite texture, but it is worth a try. Think of it a fatty version of custard – it is more of a negative space, lacking texture more than having a specific one, so frying it gives it some structure. Scrambling it with eggs is like eating a potato chip on top of a cracker – two similar textures, too similar textures.

With a light, offally funk, brains add richness, but not a ton of flavor to the eggs. After bite number one, I grabbed for a bottle of Coop Too Hot Jack-O-Lantern Sauce and dropped some heat and acidity on the eggs. This helped, but in the end, all of the extra work to prepare the brains did not bring me a whole lot of return.

Lately my 2 year daughter has been enormously helpful in the kitchen and this time was no different. It was little Rosemary who reaped the benefits of the brains. Of the three of us who tried the brains and eggs, she loved it best – finishing the bowl after my wife and I sharing a few bites. She moved next to dropping the fork and using her little fingers to get every last brainy bit.  We knew at age one, when she devoured a plate of BBQ beef heart at the Green City Market BBQ, that we had an adventurous eater on our hands, but expected it to wane. Apparently it has not and that allowed me to put the governor on a little, even after a long, hot, successful race.