Let's Face It: Cooking With Animal Heads At Home Is Easy, Nutritious

Food Republic's column Ask Your Butcher seeks to answer FAQs in the world of butchery. Ethically minded butcher Bryan Mayer founded Philadelphia's Kensington Quarters and helped develop a renowned butcher-training program at Brooklyn's Fleisher's. Today, he consults with farmers, chefs, butchers and anyone else who will listen. In each column, Mayer tackles a pressing issue facing both meat buyers and home cooks. This week, Mayer is really on top of his game. And by top, we mean the head.

Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about cooking and utilizing the overlooked bits of meat. I hesitate to call them the odd bits, as I hope you've started to appreciate that there's nothing really odd about them. Rich in flavor and packed with nutrients, these parts are healthy and — I believe — necessary for a balanced diet. Now, we've clearly been "heading" in a certain direction, and while we've covered quite a few underutilized parts, there's one in particular that we've left off. It's sort of the Swiss Army knife of edible parts: the head! You've got meat packed inside all those crevices, cheeks and, depending on the animal, jowls. You've got bones with all those essential nutrients. And last but certainly not least, you've got offal: tongues, sometimes skin, eyes and brains! The latter two contain lots of DHA, an omega-3 that has a range of profound health benefits.

Now before we get started, we need to address the 800-pound cow in the room — BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), more commonly known as mad cow disease. This is a degenerative disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, most often, of adult cattle. And unlike a report that was just issued (ahem, WHO/IARC), the CDC has determined that there is not only strong epidemiological evidence, but also laboratory evidence, of a causal association between BSE and a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an illness that can occur in humans.

That's all scary stuff on its own, and when you add on the fact that scientists aren't exactly sure how this disease came to be, you've got the makings of some fantastical headlines. But rest easy knowing that this has occurred only four times in the United States since 2003, and as an eater of grass-fed beef, sheep and goats, you have almost no chance of eating an animal that has consumed animal protein, one of the presumed causes. Once again, as you've heard me say many times: Know your farmer and know your butcher.

Now, let's eat some heads!

You can consume the head of pretty much any animal, but I'm going to focus on three that are fairly easy to get: pig, sheep or goat, and beef. Your local whole-animal butcher shop should almost always have the first three on hand. But again, since almost none of us have been looking for these things for quite some time, they might have found alternative uses.

My friends at the Meat Hook Sandwich Shop in Brooklyn have a sandwich appropriately named Pig Face. I highly recommend it. Out west in Denver, Western Daughters is smoking heads, picking the meat off and making some incredible rillettes (I'll show you a quick and easy way to do them soon). So make sure you call a-head (sorry) of time and reserve what you need. You'll also want it as close to delivery day as possible, as they are highly perishable.

Back in my Brooklyn days, goat's head soup meant one thing to me — a great Rolling Stones record that was the follow-up to one of the most incredible, Exile on Main Street. What insurmountable odds one must overcome to put out something that undoubtedly (and most likely) could have sucked. So with the help of a friend, and a store we affectionately called the Food Fortress, I was introduced to another goat's head soup.

I had been in there many times, but for some reason I had never noticed the open freezers, sitting in the middle of the floor, toward the back. A quick peek and wipe of the frost-covered bags revealed the heads we were looking for. If you haven't already noticed, I'm trying to keep this simple, as I realize I'm already asking you to consume a head. Water, spices and, of course, the head, and you've got something special. Yes, just like the head cheese above, leave the head intact, and everything will render into the stock and fortify with way more nutrients. I like to brown the head first, as it'll add to the richness and color. We improvised, as some of the ingredients for what's known as Mannish Water — the traditional Jamaican goat's head soup — are not always readily available.

Ingredients

1 goat's head (or lamb, if not available)

1½ pounds yams (or any other starchy tuber you can get ahold of)

½ pound carrots

½ pound turnips (or beets)

1 bunch scallions, chopped

2 peppers (a poblano or jalapeño on the lower side of the heat index, or a ghost pepper or scotch bonnet on the high)

A few sprigs of thyme

Salt to taste

Toss the head into a pot, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and give it about three hours. You can test with a fork to see if the meat pulls away easily from the bone. Remove the head and pick off the meat, which then goes right back into your pot. Toss in your veggies for another 20-30 minutes and you're done. You should add some peppers for heat. Because we're all about economy here, you can create a few meals from this. Pick the remaining meat from the head, brown on a stove top with some onions, add a little lime and wrap it in a tortilla.