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CALF'S HEAD (a la Tortue)

This dish, which is elaborate and apparently difficult, will not be found to be beyond the power of anyone who can please the eye as well as the palate, and, after having flavoured a dish judiciously, can arrange it elegantly. Procure a large calf's head, properly prepared. Scald it with the skin on. Remove the brains, which must be boiled, chopped, and made into cakes, with bread-crumbs, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and egg. They can then be put on one side and fried in a little hot butter just before they are wanted. Boil the head in the usual way (see CALF'S HEAD, BOILED) till it is sufficiently tender to allow the bones to be taken away without altering the shape of the head. Do not take away the tongue, as it will help to preserve the form. Take a large stewpan, melt three ounces of butter in it, and when it is brown, mix smoothly with it two table-spoonfuls of rice flour. Add just enough of the liquor in which the head was boiled to cover the meat, but before putting the head in, season the sauce with salt, cayenne, nutmeg, four large tomatoes stewed, and two glasses of sherry. Let it boil up, then put in the calf's head, and when this is hot it is ready to serve. The brain cakes may be heated in the sauce, as also may button mushrooms, forcemeat balls, the yolks of eggs boiled hard, sliced truffles, cock's-combs, real or artificial. It is generally found better to boil and bone this dish the day before it is wanted. Time to stew in the gravy, three-quarters of an hour. Sufficient for ten or twelve persons.

CALF'S HEAD (a la Tortue), another way.

The remains of a cold calf's head may be cut into small squares, warmed in a little good gravy, and ornamented in the same way as the last dish. Make the sauce rather thick, put the meat in the middle of the dish, and garnish as prettily as possible with forcemeat balls, the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, and the whites cut into rings, gherkins, olives, and stewed mushrooms. Time to simmer the meat in the gravy, a quarter of an hour.