Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Sheep's Tails with Rice.— Put three or four sheep's tails into boiling- water, and let them boil for a quarter of an hour. Take them up, and lay them side by side in a stewpan, with sHces of bacon under and over them. Put with them a sliced onion, a scraped carrot, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, two cloves, and a dozen peppercorns ; pour upon them as much stock as will barely cover them. Put the lid on the saucepan, and stew the tails very gently until done enough. Boil separately in nicely-flavoured stock a quarter of a pound of well-washed rice. Put haK of this at the bottom of a dish, lay the tails upon it, and cover them with the other half. Strain the gravy, thicken with brown thickening, add a little salt if required, and send it to table in a tureen. Time to simmer the tails, four hours. Sheep's Tongues (au Gratin).— Sheep's tongues may be bought at the tripe shop either fresh or partially boiled. If fresh, they will need to be soaked in salt and water for a couple of hours, and then boiled for two hours. If partially boiled, they will not require to be boiled more than half or three-quarters of an hour, or they may be eaten cold. Boil three or four tongues in as much stock as will cover them, and add a bunch of sweet herbs, a carrot, an onion stuck with two cloves, and a little salt and pepper. When the skin will peel off, take them up and skin them. Make as much good veal forcemeat as will cover the bottom of the dish on which the tongues are to be served. Mix a little minced bacon with this, and moisten with the raw yolks of two eggs and a little of the hot liquor in which the tongues are boiled. Make it hot, spread it on a hot dish, drain off any particles of fat that may float on the surface, and lay the sheep's tongues, boiled, skinned, and split in halves, on the forcemeat. Strain the gravy, pour a little of it over the tongues, and serve the rest in a tureen. Sometimes the forcemeat is soaked in the liquor and rubbed through a hair sieve, and the tongues are gently stewed in the sauce for half an hour, then served on a hot dish with the sauce over and round them. Time to boil the tongues, two hours. Probable cost, 4d. each. Sufficient for five or six persons. Sheep's Tongues (au Gratin). Another way. — Cut as many bits of bread in the shape of cock's-combs as you have tongues. Take some fine forcemeat. Erect a little dome in the centre of the dish, and dress the tongues in the said forcemeat, leaving, however, room enough between to place one of the toasts ; then put the dish into the oven. When the forcemeat and tongues are done, take them out of the oven, and drain all the grease ; they must be covered with bacon in order that they may not get dry (unless a mould may be procured to close hermetically) ; then put the toasts, or croutons, fried of a fine brown colour, between each tongue, and the sauce with a thick essence. Mind that the tongues must be glazed and braized before with whatever sauce they were served. (861 ) SHE