The encyclopædia of practical cookery

Chop the brains with a small quantity of parsley, dredge them with about 1 table-spoonful of flour, and season with finely-minced lemonpeel, salt, pepper, and a small quantity of grated nutmeg ; then mix two well-beaten eggs with them. Shape the remainder of the forcemeat into small balls, put a large lump of dripping into a frying-pan, make it hot, and fry the forcemeat balls in it, also the brain mixture, which should be dropped in in small quantities with a spoon. When fried, drain the forcemeat balls and brain cakes on a wire sieve in front of the fire. When the head is cooked, remove the tapes and place it on a hot dish, strain the cooking liquor through a fine hair sieve, return it to the saucepan with 1 oz. of butter that has been kneaded with 2 table-spoonfuls of flour, and stir it over the fire until thickened ; more salt and pepper may be added if required. Make the slices of tongue hot in the gravy, then pour it over the Calf’s Head ; garnish with slices of lemon, the forcemeat balls, and brain cakes, and serve while very hot. If there is too much liquor to go on the dish with the head, serve the remainder in a sauceboat. (2) Put half a well-cleaned Calf’s Head (with the skin on) into a saucepan, and add a knuckle of ham and a few onions and sweet herbs. Pour in sufficient water to cover them, and place the pan on the side of the fire to simmer slowly until the flesh can be easily separated from the bones. When this is so, take the half-head out, drain it, and cut it up into large squares. Add 1 gill of white wine to half the liquor, and reduce it over a quick fire to half its original bulk. Put the pieces of meat in a large basin, pour over the reduced liquor, and add a few mushrooms, small onions, a little pork cut up into small pieces, and the tongue cut in slices. Put these into a saucepan, and let them simmer at the side of the fire until all are thoroughly cooked. Add a few forcemeat balls, and serve. The trimmings and remainder of the liquor with a little wine, thickened with flour, will make a good mock-turtle soup. (3) Put half a Calf’s Head in a basin of salted water and a little vinegar, and let it soak for two hours. Take out the brain and tongue, and put the half-head in a saucepan with sufficient water to cover it ; dissolve in the water 1 tablelfor details respecting Culinary Processes, Utensils, C alf — continutable-spoonful of salt, and boil up. When it has been boiling for ten minutes, pour off the liquor, cover again with water, and add two onions with a clove stuck in each, 1 table-spoonful of vinegar, a small bunch of parsley with a sprig of thyme, and 1 tablespoonful of salt. Place the pan on the fire and boil for two hours, when the meat should be easily removed from the bones. Take out the head, remove the flesh from the bones, and put it on a dish ; cover with white sauce or rich brown gravy. Boil the tongue, skin it, cut in small pieces, and put on a separate dish. In the meantime put the brains in a saucepan with a little of the stock in which the head was boiled, and boil until they are quite firm ; chop them up, and put them into a saucepan with about 1 oz. of butter, a squeeze of lemon-juice, 2 table-spoonfuls of parsley (dried and rubbed very fine), and salt and pepper to taste.