the good old days

Grandma knew how to be thrifty. She used everything. None of this modern wasteful throwing away of, for example, calf’s heads.

Calf’s Head Surprised

And the dish set before them,–O dish well devised!–
Was what Old Mother Glasse calls “a calf’s head surprised.”
—MOORE.

Instructions: Clean and blanch a calf’s head, boil it till the bones will come out easily, then bone and press it between two dishes, so as to give it a headlong form; beat it with the yolks of four eggs, a little melted butter, pepper and salt. Divide the head when cold, and brush it all over with the beaten eggs, and strew over it grated bread, which is put over one half; a good quantity of finely minced parsley should be mixed; place the head upon a dish, and bake it of a nice brown color. Serve it with a sauce of parsley and butter, and with one of good gravy, mixed with the brains, which have been previously boiled, chopped, and seasoned with a little cayenne and salt.

Of course, this is from an 1864 cookbook, so it isn’t really grandma, it’s great-great-great-grandma. And she was probably chided by great-great-great-great-grandma for wasting the skullbones. You can make … uh … calf bone stew with that.

Of course, I’m sure you’re all wondering how the hell you’d carve a calf’s head, right?

Commence by making long slices from end to end of the cheek, cutting quite through… With each of these slices serve a cut of what is called the throat sweet-bread, which lies at the fleshy part of the neck end…. A little of the tongue is usually placed on each plate, and about a spoonful of the brains…. Many persons consider the palate a dainty, and it should always be offered at table to the guests or members of the family.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 am and is filed under food, just plain weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.