A food I don't want to eat: Pork Brains in Milk Gravy

by Nicole Weston, Posted Jul 6th 2006 @ 12:56PM

I can only think of a few food products that sound less appetizing than pork brains in milk gravy - fermented shark springs to mind - but this is certainly near the bottom of the list. The interesting thing to note about this product is its nutritional information. One can, which is about 2/3 cup, has only 150 calories and 5 grams of fat. It also has 3,500mg of cholesterol, which is 1170% of the recommended daily allowance. Yikes!

The weirdest thing about this cardiologist's nightmare of a product is that there must be enough demand to justify canning it. According to this article, it's not uncommon in the South, but it also says that it tastes pretty nasty. I have to ask: is anyone really eating this stuff?

[via A Full Belly]

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Filed Under: Food Oddities, Ingredients
Tags: brains, canned food, disgusting food, gravy, milk gravy, oddities, pork, pork brains, pork brains in milk gravy, south, southern states, the south, TheSouth

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-06-2006 @1:16PM champignon said...
Hey, brains are very tasty, though lamb and beef tend to be tastier than pork. The milk gravy i am not that convinced about. Fried in butter and spread on toast is my preparation of choice...

-c
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7-06-2006 @1:40PM Julie said... gross!
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7-06-2006 @2:00PM oooooops said... My dad grew up on a mill hill in the south. Breakfast everyday was hog brains. And you either ate it or you went hungry fortunately for me he didn't really like them.

When I was a teenager working in a grocery store as a stocker one of the guys on 3rd shift was tired of working for the day so he made himself puke by eating a can of pork brains. Must be tasty
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7-06-2006 @2:02PM Dr. Electro said... Nicole, we ate brains and eggs when I was a kid. I didn't really care for them but we ate what was put in front of us back then. Now? I wouldn't eat them for money. Trust me, if you've nevere tried them and you are already past the age of three or four years old, don't start now.
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7-06-2006 @2:20PM Dave said... That's 3.5 GRAMS of cholesterol. In other words, 5 g of fat, and 3.5 g of cholesterol. Wow. What a country!
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7-06-2006 @2:53PM mad pig said... mmmm, hog prions to go!
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7-06-2006 @3:12PM dave d said... I used to keep a can on the mantle in one of my last all-boy apartments ... I mean, that's really the only kind of place you can keep something like that out for display ... right next to the garden gnome ... anyway, I was living in NC then, but I've seen them in Chicago grocery stores, too.
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7-06-2006 @3:50PM liz said... fyi: the cholesterol comes from the fat that coats the nerve cells.

growing up in tennessee, i used to see these cans on the grocery shelves but never had the guts to try it. i think it's mostly of my grandparents' generation, before animal protein was plentiful and cheap (hence, pickled pig's feet, chitlins, every part of the hog).
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7-06-2006 @6:30PM Bruce Dearborn Walker said... NOTHING in a can tastes good. Especially meat.

Fresh brains are okay, but I'd have to be drinking to choke them down. Or really hungry.
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7-06-2006 @7:16PM Dr. Electro said... I was born in Texas. My dad was born in Oklahoma. He ate chicken heads. Go figure. Mom's parents were born in Germany. They scrambled the brains with eggs. Again go figure.

I greatly prefer the meatier parts of the critter, thank you.

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7-06-2006 @8:43PM jOHN said... An old boss of mine used to eat it scrambled up with eggs. He called the pig brains Scrapple. I've yet to find it in Southern California because I want to at least try a little of it, but he says that it's getting harder to find.
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7-07-2006 @1:47AM spline9 said... I'd try it if it was put in front of me. Heck, if I had a simple recipe, I'd maybe even make it. I'm all up for trying different things. If its gross, I wanna know why and to what caliber so I can compare. Besides, its fun. A festive cookie or fancy cupcake has little to no humor value and is soon forgotten unlike !!**Pork Brains in Milk Gravy**!! WooHoo!
(see how much fun that was?)
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7-07-2006 @2:12AM spline9 said... thinking about it...
I wonder if we can get Sarah Gim to eat some by rolling some up with bacon.
mmmm bacon. mmm brains. mmm braicon!
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8-11-2006 @11:33AM Lin Exline said... Pig brains! Yuk! In milk gravy? Double Yuk!!
Got to admit though, I LOVE pickled pigs feet..they are very good actually

champignon! You eat beef brains too...haven't ever heard of Mad Cow Disease. You eat the brain of a cow that has it but doesn't have any symptoms yet and then 20 years down the read, YOUR brain looks like Spongebob Squarepants body! Be careful there dude!
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8-28-2006 @10:08AM brad thomas said... When I was in high school I worked in a grocery store in Central Louisiana. One day a woman came into the store and said her pork brains did not taste right and she wanted to exchange them. I had no idea that we had pork brains in milky gravy, but after checking the aisle sure enough we did. My next thought was jeeze lady what are pork brains in milky gravy suppose to taste like.
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9-24-2006 @12:12AM Sadie said... Heck... if you're in Southern California and want to eat brains... just go to Tacos Mexico or any mexican dive and get a taco de cabeza.
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