Cow Eye Tacos

Hey dudes, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we’re in the second great depression and yet everyday we waste perfectly good meat that could be used for human consumption. That’s right, I’m talking about all that delectable fat and muscle that surrounds the cow eyeballs that we dissect on the floor every hour.

The Exploratorium is a place where we’re all about doing experiments, so I thought I would take the time to answer the age old question…”can you eat them?”

I spent some time thinking about how to prepare them. Conventional wisdom says that cow eyes are best prepared in soups or stews. But that seemed too easy and predictable. I wanted something that put the eyeball meat in a prominent position but also contained lots of hot sauce that could mask any possible off flavors. Tacos seemed to be an obvious choice. After work, I secreted into the bio lab and grabbed two eyes from the fridge. Next I went down to the supermarket and bought some tortillas, limes, and Tapatio. In the kitchen I cut off the fat and muscle and sauteed it with a bit of salt and pepper.

At first I was a bit hesitant to taste the dish, but after realizing that hot dog meat is probably made of far worse parts of the animal, I dug right in to the culinary creation. And you know what? It wasn’t half bad.

Tacos de Ojo (Eye-ball Tacos)

Makes 1 heaping taco

2 Cow Eyes (muscle and fat trimmed off)

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

2 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoon Pepper

1 Lime

1 Corn Tortilla

Tapatio Hot Sauce

Heat up oil in a small pan. Add trimmed fat and muscle from the eye. Add salt and pepper to the pan. Cook until muscle is browned and the fat has become transluscent. Place on the tortilla and add lime and hot sauce to taste.