# If these aren't brains in a jar, what are they? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049 "2006-05-17T00:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/21 "2006-05-17T18:12:07Z")
It’s not what you’re talking about, I know, but I had to point it out. At the Boston-area Arisia scienmce fiction convention this year one of the artists had sculptures that consist of model brains in bottles of colored (usually green) liquid. The bases very often feature radio knobs and displays and the like. Very 1940s Mad Scientist. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/22 "2006-05-17T18:20:26Z")
About ten years ago a friend of mine and I were on the subway and saw a Chinese woman eating what could _only_ have been a Brain in a Jar. We tried not to be too obvious about gawking, but we did try to sneak a good peek. I’m so glad to read this and know we were not hallucinating and that she was (probably) not a zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/23 "2006-05-17T18:39:25Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > I’ll take the movie “Clue” for a thousand dollars Alex. > > **Stands by and waits for showering of undying friendship** You’ve got it! That’s my favorite movie of all time! :showers undying friendship: ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/24 "2006-05-17T18:40:42Z")
If you’re going to go around eating brains in a jar in public (or cauliflower in a jar, which would be just as bad), you _have_[ to put an adhesive-tape label on it that says: **Hans Delbruck : Scientist and Saint** ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/25 "2006-05-17T18:45:48Z")
\*So if you’d like to swing on a star Carry pig brains home in a jar Their prions taste much better by far Or would you rather eat a goat?\* ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/26 "2006-05-17T18:50:53Z")
Those are clearly jars of I Can’t Believe It’s Not BrainsTM. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/27 "2006-05-17T18:58:03Z")
It’s Brains! in a Jar! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/28 "2006-05-17T19:21:08Z")
**Brain in a Jar,** if not a band name, would certainly make an _excellent_ username. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/29 "2006-05-17T19:28:02Z")
My local produce market frequently has things in the meat section that you don’t run into at the local megamart (skinned sheep heads and whole rabbits for example) and they often have brains of a sort for sale. Based off of my own morbid curiosity I can safely report that I have given them the time honored “poke test” that I perfected on the eyes of packaged fish, and that brains feel “Oogy”. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/30 "2006-05-17T19:29:16Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > A quick Google search suggests that as of 1999 Heinz strained **brians** were still commercially available a sbaby food, at least somewhere in the world. And we have a confession, folks…the cops will arrive shortly. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/31 "2006-05-17T19:29:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **Brain in a Jar,** if not a band name, would certainly make an _excellent_ username. No, then it should be Brane in a Jar or some such thing. Just to show it’s really in the jar, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/32 "2006-05-17T19:37:49Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > You’ve got it! That’s my favorite movie of all time! > > :showers undying friendship: Thankyou, so that’s what that feels like! And don’t feel bad, my favorite movie is Fletch. We all have our dirty secrets. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MizGrand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MizGrand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizGrand)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/33 "2006-05-17T20:18:15Z")
When a new Mexican restaurant opened near my home we had to try it out, of course. I called in and picked up an easy order, some burritos and quesadillas IIRC. When I got there I noticed that there were brains on the menu. I couldn’t eat my food. It just icked me out that _what if_ somebody goofed and put brains on my quesadilla instead of pollo? I’ve not returned, but I hear their food is quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Azadeh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cab0a1/32.png) [@Azadeh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azadeh)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/34 "2006-05-17T20:42:08Z")
The letter shown on the cannibalism site is written in Korean (though the monetary unit character is Japanese yen, not Korean won)… kind of curious as to why the site doesn’t mention that. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049/35 "2006-05-17T23:16:36Z")
> [@The Scrivener](#): > > Assuming that some of those who eat brains do so in the belief that they’re, uh, brain food, shouldn’t they think twice about consuming **sheep brains?** Don’t tell Hal Briston. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-these-arent-brains-in-a-jar-what-are-they/357049.md?page=1)