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Comment by SEJeff | Hacker News Reader

Born and raised in Kentucky (Lexington). I've never heard of squirrel brains as a dish. That's an interesting tidbit. Would it be fair to guess that the parts of KY this is popular are on the south eastern part of the state on the border with West Virginia? All of the normal rules of everything are different when you're in Appalachia.

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Here's some info from a quick google: http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/victim23.html

Looks like the dish is called Burgoo

> The center of the burgoo universe is Owensboro, Kentucky

Just when I thought my home state couldn't embarrass me more by being backwards...

Thanks!

I wouldn't be embarrassed. Those squirrels were probably wild caught (vs factory farmed), and the fact that they didn't waste the brain shows their resourcefulness.

Those are,after all, the same things we (rightfully) laud in the consumption of other types of more normative food animals. Just because it's a squirrel shouldn't change that.

EDIT: Added editorial wording to second paragraph.

Absolutely. Though as someone who has eaten squirrel (WV native. Yes it tastes like chicken.), I am amazed that someone took the time to get the brains out and eat them. It takes several squirrels to make a decent meal. I can't imagine how many it would take to have a substantial amount of what must be very small brains.

Aw don't be embarrassed. It's a cool little bit of history. Growing up in the bible belt, I remember many charity events were accompanied by a stew. You could buy it by the quart. My local volunteer fire department made a stew twice a year and everyone in the community looked forward to it. My grandfather and father used to cook stews for my birthday. The act of cooking a stew was an all day affair and pretty fun by itself. Everyone would sit next to the stew cauldron and fire on a cold fall/winter day and take turns adding ingredients and stirring.

That group cooking is super cool.

I am going to arrange a family event where that happens.

I've heard more about my home state's alleged consumption of squirrel brain outside the state than in it. And I have a couple kitschy KY cookbooks with recipes for burgoo, entirely rodent free. Every place will have hillbillies who eat odd game meat, if you search hard enough. KY just seems to be a popular target for this topic.

There’s a recipe in the new Appalachian cookbook by Ronnie Lundy, Victuals.

Clearly you contract the disease if you get behind on the salary to the black preacher.

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