Good Calf’s Head Soup

Ingredients

• six to seven pounds of the thick part of a shin of beef
• five quarts of water
• an ounce of salt
• a large bunch of savoury herbs
• one large onion
• head of celery
• three carrots
• two or three turnips
• two small blades of mace
• eight or ten cloves
• a few white or black peppercorns
• from six to eight ounces of fine rice-flour
• a quarter-teaspoonful of cayenne
• half a wineglassful of mushroom catsup
• two glasses of sherry

Method

1. 1

   Stew down the shin of beef with ham in water until reduced.

2. 2

   Add salt, herbs, onion, celery, carrots, turnips, mace, cloves, and peppercorns.

3. 3

   Boil gently for 6-7 hours, strain, and set aside.

4. 4

   Prepare the calf's head, stew it in the stock for 1.5 hours, cool in the liquor, then heat with the head cut into pieces.

5. 5

   Mix rice-flour with cayenne and catsup, add to the soup, boil for 8-10 minutes, add sherry, and serve with fried forcemeat-balls.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 10 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Modern cookery, in all its branches (1884) by Eliza Acton, page 53. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

GOOD calf’s HEAD SOUP. (Not expensive ,) Stew down from six to seven pounds of the thick part of a shin of beef with a little lean ham, or a slice of hung beef, or of Jewish beef, trimmed free from the smoky edges, in five quarts of water until re- duced nearly half, with the addition, when it first begins to boil, of an ounce of salt, a large bunch of savoury herbs, one large onion, a * The brain should be blanched, that is, thrown into boiling water with a little salt in it, and boiled from five to eight minutes, then lifted out and laid into cold water for a quarter of an hour: it must be wiped very dry before it is fried. 28 MODERN COOKERY. [chap. I. head of celery, three carrots, two or three turnips, two small blades of mace, eight or ten cloves, and a few white or black peppercorns. Let it boil gently that it may not be too much reduced, for six or seven hours, then strain it into a clean pan and set it by for use. Take out the bone from half a calf’s head with the skin on (the butcher will do this if desired), wash, roll, and bind it with a bit of tape or tovine, and lay it into a stewpan, with the bones and tongue ; cover the whole with the beef stock, and stew it for an hour and a half ; then lift it into a deep earthen pan and let it cool in the liquor, as this will pre- vent the edges from becoming dry or discoloured. Take it out before it is quite cold ; strain, and skim all the fat carefully from the stock ; and heat five pints in a large clean saucepan, with the head cut into small thick slices or into inch-squares. As quite the whole will not be needed, leave a portion of the fat, but add every morsel of the skin to the soup, and of the tongue also. Should the first of these not be perfectly tender, it must be simmered gently till it is so ; then stir into the soup from six to eight ounces of fine rice-flour mixed with a quarter-teaspoonful of cayenne, twice as much freshly pounded mace, half a wineglassful of mushroom catsup,* and sufficient cold broth or water to render it of the consistence of batter ; boil the whole from eight to ten minutes ; take off the scum, and throw in two glasses of sherry

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.