Page 34 - Fall2020

Needless to say, culinary traditions in Morocco definitely include cally by going to an Iranian grocer and buying
utilizing the entire animal! I saw live animals available for customers to organ meats for a fraction of the cost because
purchase, slaughter and butcher themselves—like rabbits and sheep—as no one else wanted them.
well as sheep that were being sold as a gutted carcass with their faces Organ meats are routinely served in Mo-
and wool intact. rocco with onion, garlic and parsley. My mother
also shared with me that one of the culinary
ORGAN MEATS traditions she learned was to soak kidneys and
As the Weston A. Price Foundation states, “Organ meats are the most liver in lemon juice or vinegar in order to purify
nutrient-dense part of the animal—from ten to one hundred times richer them. Interestingly, Sally Fallon Morell offers
in vitamins and minerals than muscle meats—and traditional cultures the same instructions in her book Nourishing
always consumed them, usually in rich dishes that included cream and Traditions.
plenty of butter. Such fare is truly food for the body and soul!” 2
My mother, who funded the Nourishing Our Children educational IF WE EAT ANIMAL BRAINS,
initiative that I established in 2005 as a project of the Weston A. Price WILL WE BE SMART?
Foundation, was well aware of the critical importance of nutrient-dense It has been reported that children who grow
foods during children’s formative years. She fed me and my siblings up eating the brains of animals have healthier
lamb’s brains as soon as we were eating solid foods. She simply sautéed brains and nervous systems than those who don’t
them in a skillet because the brains didn’t need any additional fat. They eat them. This makes intuitive sense because
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already had the “good kind of fat,” she explained. many of the key nutrients needed for brain devel-
I read in the Cook’s Thesaurus that “Even adventurous eaters often opment—such as vitamin A, vitamin D, choline,
draw the line at brains, and it’s just as well, since they’re loaded with DHA, zinc, tryptophan and cholesterol—are
cholesterol” (which my mother’s culture didn’t fear). The Thesaurus found in organ meats.
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continues, “Those who do eat them often scramble them with eggs. It’s While brain is one of the most nutritionally
very important that brains be fresh, so either cook them or freeze them dense organs found in any animal, unfortunately
the day you buy them.” The Thesaurus also lists sweetbreads as substi- it is also an organ that can carry a concentrated
3
tutes, stating “Brains and sweetbreads can be used interchangeably in amount of disease. “Mad cow” disease (bovine
most recipes, but brains aren’t as well regarded.” My mother fed us all spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) refers to a
the organ meats—kidney and liver as well—but she told me that brain degenerative and fatal condition that occurs in
was my favorite. cows, which essentially creates “spongy holes”
According to my mother, organ meats were highly valued in both in an affected cow’s brain. The conventional
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Morocco and France, where I was born and spent my first five years. hypothesis about BSE is that cattle can become
When we emigrated to America, she discovered that organ meats were not infected by eating feed that contains infected
embraced by the predominant culture. She could feed us very economi- tissue from other cows or other animals Within
.7

IN A MARKET IN
MEKNES SOUK EL HDIM

LEFT: Whole cow’s head

RIGHT: Cow's hooves

32 Wise Traditions FALL 2020