A delightful and not inelegant entrée.
Roast sweetbreads
Parboil two pairs of sweetbreads and blanch by throwing them into cold water. Drain, pierce three or four holes in each and press into these holes narrow strips of fat salt pork, allowing the strips to project a half-inch on each side. Lay the sweetbreads in a roasting-pan, pour a cupful of weak veal stock over them and rub them with melted butter. Cover and bake for twenty-five minutes; remove from the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put a spoonful of the thickened and seasoned gravy upon each, and send to the table.
Baked calf’s head
The head should be cleaned with the skin left on, also the ears, and split down the under side, leaving the top unbroken. Remove the tongue and brains, parboil and set them on ice. Put the head on in plenty of cold water, boil quickly and for one minute after the boiling point is reached. Take the head off and lay in ice-cold water. Change this for colder in ten minutes, and leave in this for several hours.
Then put over the fire in boiling water, to which a tablespoonful of vinegar has been added, and a tablespoonful of salt. Cook gently until you can slip out the bones easily.
Do this, drawing the teeth, cheek-bones and skull, taking care not to break the upper skin. Put into a bake-dish, restoring the shape as well as you can. Cut the tongue into slices and lay close against the cheeks; wash plentifully with butter rubbed to a cream with lemon juice, sift dry crumbs all over it and bake, covered, half an hour. Then brown.
To make the gravy, rub the brains to a soft paste; pepper and salt, season with tomato catsup and onion juice, add enough of the liquor in which the head was boiled to make a boatful of gravy, thicken with butter rolled in flour, simmer five minutes and serve.
There is no more savory preparation of calf’s head than this. It goes to table in the bake-dish. The liquor from the pot in which it had the second boiling makes excellent soup stock.
Boiled calf’s head