Lamb's Sweetbreads

These make an admirable breakfast dish, and can be partly prepared over-night. Trim and wash the sweetbreads, put them into a saucepan with sufficient well-flavoured stock to cover them, a minced onion, and a sprig of lemon thyme, boil gently for fifteen minutes, or a little longer if necessary. Take them up, drain, dip in egg and finely sifted bread-crumbs, mixed with a little flour, pepper, and salt. Fry very carefully, so as not to make it brown or hard, some small slices of bacon; keep warm whilst you fry the sweetbreads in the fat which has run from it, adding, if required, a little piece of butter or lard.

For a breakfast dish, the sweetbread should be served without gravy; but if for an entree, the liquor in which they were stewed, with slight additions and a little thickening, can be poured round them in the dish.

Calf's sweetbreads are prepared in the same manner as the above, and can either be fried, finished in a Dutch oven, or served white, with parsley and butter or white sauce.

Sheep's Brains

These are an excellent substitute for sweetbreads, and if properly cooked, make an imitation that will deceive many persons. At all seasons they are to be had at small cost, especially so if it is convenient to buy the whole head for broth, etc. Having carefully washed the brains, boil them fast, so as to harden them without breaking them, in well-seasoned gravy. When done, take them up and allow them to remain till quite cold. Then divide each lobe down the middle and dip each piece in egg, and afterwards in seasoned bread-crumbs. Fry and serve as directed for sweetbreads.

Brains And Tongues Au Gratin

Take the tongues and brains from two sheeps' heads, lay the brains in cold water, and thoroughly wash the tongues in salt and water. Put both the tongues and brains into a stewpan, with sufficient cold water to cover them; add a little salt and let them boil for two minutes; then take them out of the water and throw it away. By thus treating any part of the head, perfect cleanliness is insured. Put the tongues into a stewpan, with a large pinch of saltpetre, a teaspoonful of salt, two onions, a bay-leaf, and a quart of water; let them boil for three hours, or until so perfectly tender that they will hardly bear the fork. When done, let them remain in the liquor until cool, then take off the skin, and set them aside until cold. The brains must be boiled separately, and rather fast, in a little highly seasoned stock, for ten minutes. When ready, let them get cold; then divide each lobe into three or four slices, dip them in egg, then in highly seasoned bread-crumb very finely sifted; divide the tongues, having first trimmed the roots of all gristle, etc., into three or four slices; egg and crumb these also. Put an ounce of butter into a frying-pan; when it froths, put in the brains and tongues, and fry first on one side and then on the other, until lightly browned. Serve with a little gravy, flavoured with mushrooms or lemon-juice, poured round the dish.

Brain Fritters

Procure an ox brain, carefully wash it, and boil it for a quarter of an hour in well-seasoned stock. When the brain is cold, cut it into slices as thin as possible, dip each of them in batter, drop them as you do them into fat at a temperature of 430°, or that which will brown instantly a piece of bread dipped into it. To make the batter, mix two large tablespoonfuls of fine flour with four of cold water, mix in a tablespoonful of dissolved butter or of fine oil, the yolk of an egg, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Let the batter stand for two hours, and when ready to use, beat the white of the egg to a strong froth, and mix with it. Do not fry more than two fritters at once; as you take them up, throw them on paper to absorb any grease clinging to them, serve on a napkin or ornamental dish paper. If this recipe is closely followed, the fritters will be light, crisp, delicate morsels, melting in the mouth, and form besides a very pretty dish. Garnish with fried parsley; take care the parsley is thoroughly dry, put it into a small frying-basket, and immerse it for an instant in the fat in which the fritters were cooked. Turn it out on paper, diy, and serve.

Sweetbread Balls

Mince any cooked sweetbread, roll it up with half its quantity of bread-crumbs, a little chopped parsley, pepper and salt, and if liked, a very small piece of shalot minced as finely as possible. Mix these together with sufficient egg to bind them, then roll them into balls, dip them in yolk of egg, and dust over with raspings, and fry them in a little butter.

Put a little brown gravy on a dish and place the balls on it.

Brain Or Sweetbread Cutlets

Cut the remains of any brains or sweetbreads into pieces about the size of half-a-crown, egg them over, and dip them in finely-sifted raspings, pepper, salt, and a pinch of dried parsley as fine as dust. Fry them in a little butter, and then place them round the edge of a dish with a piece of fried bread of equal size between each. In the centre put a little good gravy made very thick.