A little dish I like to call "brain soup"

Yes, that's right folks! With the hide free from hair and membrane it was finally time to thaw out those pig brains.  (I froze them because I knew it would take a while for me to get to this step, and I knew that I didn't want to work with semi-rotten pig brains.)

I added a cup of warm water and, with the advice from the book, used my hands to squish it into a soup-like consistency.  Extracting the brains didn't smell or seem bad, but I think it was because I was surrounded by meat and had already been working with it (and smelling it) for several hours.  This time it was just the brains and me, hanging out in the kitchen, trying to talk my mom into staying to take my picture.  I've never cooked with brains before, so it smelled weird to me.  And the squishing...well, let's just say that I had to put my mind in a different place to prevent from being grossed out... but I eventually got over it. (You can tell how comfortable I get by how deep my hands are in the brains.  Started with just fingertips, but ended up past my wrist.)

I added a cup of warm water, then got to squishin'.

This was something one does not do just everyday...

Once all the brain chunks seemed to be worked into the soup, I measured 2 gal of water that was as hot as I could stand.  The warm water would help the brain penetrate the hide, although with the cold temps, it didn't stay warm for long in the garage. (Although my parents did turn up the heat in the garage, making this experience a luxury compared to what it could have been, had I tanned outside.) 



Brain tanned leather is white (until you smoke it, if you smoke it, when it turns yellow-brown).  You can see the hide turning a beautiful white as I submerge it.




Stretching the hide a bit to make sure the brain was penetrating every surface.



The hide felt soft and slippery when I sloshed it around in the brains.

Once I finished giving the hide a good sloshin', I sealed up the bucket and brought it inside to the fireplace for one last night.

Why brains?  Brains are an emulsified oil (fat) that can work into the fibers of the hide (fibers=collagen, a type of protein) that helps them open up during the stretching and manipulation phase of leather-making.  You want an emulsion of water and oil because there are polar and non-polar ends of the molecules. (*For you non-cooks out there... an emulsion is a liquid mixture of two substances that usually repel one another. Other examples are mayonnaise and balsamic vinaigrette.)  The polar ends (water) will hydrogen bond to the fibers (collagen) while holding the oil in place among the fibers.  During the stretching, the chains of collagen slide past one another (thanks to the oil) and as they dry, they lock into place like glue (which is why you can make glue from hides).  You want to stretch the fibers open enough so that when they dry, they dry locked into a more open position than the raw hide, making the leather soft.  There are other materials you can use instead of brains, as long as they contain oils...like soap and oil, or eggs.  This phase of the tanning process is called the "dressing."  You can't dress a hide until all the other stuff has been removed- the hair, the grain, the membrane, etc.  If any of those components remain, the brains will not be able to penetrate every inch of the hide, leaving you with some soft leather and some stiff/hard rawhide.