Sheep's Tails

Ingredients

• three or four sheep's tails
• as much boiling stock as will cover them
• two or three onions
• a bunch of sweet herbs
• a pinch of mixed spice
• a little pepper
• a little salt

Method

1. 1

   Throw the tails into boiling water for fifteen minutes.

2. 2

   Drain and put into a stewpan with boiling stock.

3. 3

   Let it boil, skim carefully, and add herbs, onions, mixed spice, pepper, and salt.

4. 4

   Simmer gently for three to four hours.

5. 5

   When done, drain and bone them, press between two dishes, cool the gravy, remove fat, strain, and boil until reduced.

6. 6

   Cut ends off tails and simmer in reduced gravy until heated.

7. 7

   Serve with sauce.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 1775. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Sheep's Tails. — Throw the tails into boiling water for fifteen minutes. Drain them, and put them into a stewpan with as much boiling stock as will cover them. Let the stock boil, skim carefully, and put into it a bunch of sweet herbs, two or three onions, a pinch of mixed spice, and a little pepper and salt. Draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, and let the tails simmer gently for three or four hours. When done enough, drain and bone them, and press them between two dishes till told. Let the gravy cool, remove the fat from the top, strain it, and boil it quickly tUl it is considerably reduced. Cut the ends off the tails, and simmer them in the reduced gravy tin they are heated throughout. Dish them in a circle, and put into the centre sorrel, or •onion, or lentil, or haricot, or pease puree {see Puree), or brown cucumber sauce, and send brown gravy or tomato sauce to table with them. French cooks, instead of stewing the tails in stock, would braize them with slices of bacon, and equal quantities of mirepoix {see Mirepoix) and veal stock. Time to stew the tails, four hours. Probable cost uncertain, sheep's tails being seldom sold. Sufficient, three or four for a dish. Sheep's Tails and Kidneys.— Blanch, trim, and stew the tails, as before, in as much stock as will cover them, and stew with them a carrot, an onion stuck with two cloves, and a small bunch of sweet herbs. When the taUs are done enough, take them up, and place them in a circle on a hot dish; put in the centre an equal number of broiled kidneys, and serve in a tureen a sauce prepared as follows: — Strain the gravy in which the tails were stewed, thicken with flour and butter, boil it till it is thick enough to coat the spoon, and stir into it the juice of half a lemon. Time, three or four hours to stew the tails. Sheep's Tails, Broiled.— Blanch, stew, press, and trim the tails as before. When quite cold, brush them over with oU or beaten egg, and dip them in bread-crumbs. Let them lie a few minutes, then egg and bread-crumb them again. Broil them over a clear fire, or fiy them until they are brightly browned, dish them in a circle, and serve with ravigote <jr Valois sauce, or with a sauce made with the stock in which they were stewed, thickened with brown thickening, and flavoured with lemon- juice. Sheep's tails and sheep's tongues (an equal quantity of each) may be stewed and broiled together. The tongues will require to be skinned and split in halves. Time, four hours to stew the tails, a few minutes to broU them. Sheep's Tails with Puree of G-reen Peas. — Lay the tails in water to disgorge the blood ; then blanch them, and braize them in an old braize ; otherwise they are to be sea- soned with carrots, onions, spices, &c. ANTien done, drain and glaze them. Put the puree of green peas under them ; do the puree of sorrel.- — Ude. if you use 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 stewjmn, 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 pejjpercoms ; poiu- 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, laj^ the tails upon it, and cover them with the other half. Strain the gravy, thicken with brown thickening, add a little salt

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