Half a Calf’s Head.—(No. 10.)
Cut it in two, and take out the brains: wash the head well in several waters, and soak it in warm water for a quarter of an hour before you dress it. Put the head into a saucepan, with plenty of cold water: when it is coming to a boil, and the scum rises, carefully remove it.
Half a calf’s head (without the skin) will take from an hour and a half to two hours and a quarter, according to its size; with the skin on, about an hour longer. It must be stewed very gently till it is tender: it is then extremely nutritive, and easy of digestion.
Put eight or ten sage leaves (some cooks use parsley instead, or equal parts of each) into a small sauce-pan: boil them tender (about half an hour); then chop them very fine, and set them ready on a plate.
Wash the brains well in two waters; put them into a large basin of cold water, with a little salt in it, and let them soak for an hour; then pour away the cold, and cover them with hot water; and when you have cleaned and skinned them, put them into a stew-pan with plenty of cold water: when it boils, take the scum off very carefully, and boil gently for 10 or 15 minutes: now chop them (not very fine); put them into a sauce-pan with the sage leaves and a couple of table-spoonfuls of thin melted butter, and a little salt (to this some cooks add a little lemon-juice), and stir them well together; and as soon as they are well warmed (take care they don’t burn), skin the tongue,[115-*] trim off the roots, and put it in the middle of a dish, and the brains round it: or, chop the brains with an eschalot, a little parsley, and four hard-boiled eggs, and put them into a quarter of a pint of bechamel, or white sauce ([No. 2 of 364]). A calf’s cheek is usually attended by a pig’s cheek, a knuckle of ham or bacon ([No. 13], or [No. 526]), or pickled pork ([No. 11]), and greens, broccoli, cauliflowers, or pease; and always by parsley and butter (see [No. 261], [No. 311], or [No. 343]).
If you like it full dressed, score it superficially, beat up the yelk of an egg, and rub it over the head with a feather; powder it with a seasoning of finely minced (or dried and powdered) winter savoury or lemon-thyme (or sage), parsley, pepper, and salt, and bread crumbs, and give it a brown with a salamander, or in a tin Dutch oven: when it begins to dry, sprinkle a little melted butter over it with a paste-brush.
You may garnish the dish with broiled rashers of bacon ([No. 526] or [527]).
Obs.—Calf’s head is one of the most delicate and favourite dishes in the list of boiled meats; but nothing is more insipid when cold, and nothing makes so nice a hash; therefore don’t forget to save a quart of the liquor it was boiled in to make sauce, &c. for the hash (see also [No. 520]). Cut the head and tongue into slices, trim them neatly, and leave out the gristles and fat; and slice some of the bacon that was dressed to eat with the head, and warm them in the hash.
Take the bones and the trimmings of the head, a bundle of sweet herbs, an onion, a roll of lemon-peel, and a blade of bruised mace: put these into a sauce-pan with the quart of liquor you have saved, and let it boil gently for an hour; pour it through a sieve into a basin, wash out your stew-pan, add a table-spoonful of flour to the brains and parsley and butter you have left, and pour it into the gravy you have made with the bones and trimmings; let it boil up for ten minutes, and then strain it through a hair-sieve; season it with a table-spoonful of white wine, or of catchup ([No. 439]), or sauce superlative ([No. 429]): give it a boil up, skim it, and then put in the brains and the slices of head and bacon; as soon as they are thoroughly warm (it must not boil) the hash is ready. Some cooks egg, bread-crumb, and fry the finest pieces of the head, and lay them round the hash.
N.B. You may garnish the edges of the dish with slices of bacon toasted in a Dutch oven (see Nos. [526] and [527]), slices of lemon and fried bread.