Boiled Calf's Head

Plunge a fine, fresh, white calf's head into hot water, leaving it for one minute, lift it out and sharply rub it all over with a rough towel in order to remove all remaining hairs. Carefully cut the flesh, beginning at the center of the head, right down to the nostrils. Then, with a very sharp knife, bone it from the top to the base on both sides. Place in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of flour, one gill of vinegar, one medium-sized, well cleaned and sliced carrot, one sound peeled onion, eighteen or twenty whole peppers and two or three pinches of salt. Pour in very gradually two quarts of cold water, briskly stirring until all is added. Cut up half of the head into six equal pieces, add them to the broth, as also the other whole half, and let all cook together over a moderate fire for an hour and a half. Lift up the pieces and the half head and place the six pieces on a dry napkin. Have ready a hot dish with a folded napkin over it, tastefully dress the six pieces on it, decorate with parsley or greens, and serve with any desired sauce. Place the remaining half head in a stone jar, strain the broth over it and preserve it in a cool place for any purpose desired.

Boiled Calf's Head With Vinaigrette Sauce

Proceed the same as for boiled calf's head, laying a folded napkin on the dish and fixing thereon the half of the head. Decorate with parsley leaves, and serve with one pint of vinaigrette sauce in a sauceboat.

Braised Calf's Head

Clean and bone the head. Prepare a sufficient quantity of finely-chopped lean veal and fat bacon to stuff it. Season the stuffing with sweet herbs, salt and pepper, and bind it with the beaten yolks of three eggs. Stuff the head, sew it up securely to prevent the stuffing from oozing out and wrap it in a cloth. Line a braising pan with slices of veal and bacon; also a few slices of carrots; put in the head with a bunch of thyme and parsley and two bay leaves; season to taste with spice, and pour in one pint of broth and one-half pint of white wine. Stew the head for four hours. When cooked take it out of the cloth, put it on a hot dish and garnish with a financiere stew. Strain the cooking liquor of the head into a small clean stewpan, mix a wineglassful of Madeira wine with it; boil it a few minutes, then pour it over the head, and serve.

Calfs Head, Financiere

For the preparation of this neat dish all the principal parts are prepared as for a stew - the ears are scalded and stuffed, the brains formed into cakes. The pieces of meat are cut into large discs and arranged round a forcemeat loaf made of the trimmings, and around this again, either on the same dish or upon one below it, the ears and brain-cakes are arranged with blanched olives and button mushrooms. Skewers garnished with cockscombs, truffles and various other things, surmount the whole.

Hashed Calf's Head

Cut any desirable quantity of cold boiled calf's head into pieces about the size of a small apple. Put two or three ounces of butter into a saucepan to melt, mix in three tablespoonfuls of flour, and add one or two breakfast cupfuls of veal stock. When thoroughly incorporated add a few small mushrooms, salt and pepper to suit the taste, and boil well for ten minutes or so. Remove the saucepan to the side of the fire, add the hashed meat and allow it to get hot without boiling. Remove the pan from the fire, stir in the yolks of two eggs beaten up with the juice of a lemon and strained, and also add a little chopped parsley or tarragon. Turn the hash out onto a dish, and serve.

Calf's Head In Tortue

Cut the meat of half a cold-boiled calf's head into small pieces. Mix one wine-glassful of sherry with one-half pint of well reduced stock, add to this the yolks of six hard boiled eggs and the whites cut into small pieces, three chopped gherkins, six quenelles of veal forcemeat, the pieces of head and a little cayenne pepper. Place the saucepan over the fire till the contents are hot. Pile the pieces of head in the middle of a hot dish, pour the sauce and eggs round it, garnish with croutons of fried bread, and serve.

Calf's Head, Royal Style

This is considered by all epicures the very best of calf's head dishes. In the center of a silver dish is set a forcemeat loaf made from the fragments of the heads and necks used, scraps of veal, tongue and other things. About this are laid, overlapping each other, discs of the meat off the head, and between these alternately a blanched cockscomb and three button mushrooms, diminishing in size upwards. The ears scored and stuffed with a truffle in each, are placed on the loaf with truffles between them, and fried bread wedge-shaped croutons are ranged round the loaf, with truffles set on the base of every crouton. A few sprigs of fried parsley are sometimes added, and the whole is served with royal sauce.