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Calf's Head, Fricasseed
Cut the remains of a cold calf's head into slices about a quarter of an inch thick, and lay them aside until wanted. Put a pint and a half of the liquid in which the head was boiled into a saucepan with a salt-spoonful of salt, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, a bunch of savoury herbs, and an onion stuck with four cloves. Let these simmer gently for three-quarters of an hour; then strain the liquid, and pour it into a jar until wanted. Put a piece of butter the size of a large egg into a saucepan; let it melt, then mix with it very smoothly a table-spoonful of flour, and afterwards, very gradually, the strained liquid. Put the meat in, let it boil, draw it from the fire for a minute or two, and mix with it the beaten yolks of two eggs. Stir it over the fire till it thickens, but do not allow it to boil. Before serving, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Time, one hour and a half. Probable cost, exclusive of the cold calf's head, 6d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian second-day dish: cold boiled calf's head reheated in a velouté finished with egg yolk and lemon. The cooking is quick; almost all the stated time is the stock infusing.
- The hinge: the yolks must not boilOnce the beaten yolks go in, the sauce is a liaison and will curdle at a simmer. Draw the pan off the heat, temper a ladle of hot sauce into the yolks first, return it, and stir over low heat only until it coats a spoon — around 175F. Add the lemon juice at the very end, off the heat, for the same reason.
- Calf's headNot a supermarket item, and rarely butchered whole outside specialist butchers, who may be able to order it split and cleaned. Cooked veal breast, boned veal shank or a cooked pig's cheek gives a similar gelatinous, mild result if you want the dish rather than the original cut.
- A pint and a halfImperial measure: 30 fl oz, about 3 1/2 US cups. Some will reduce during the three-quarter-hour infusion, so expect rather less finished stock for the sauce.
- Butter the size of a large eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. With one tablespoon of flour that is a very loose roux by modern proportions; the sauce leans on the gelatine in the head liquor for body, so use the actual cooking liquid rather than a lean commercial stock.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt-spoon was roughly a quarter teaspoon. Given that the head liquor is already seasoned, treat these amounts as a starting point and correct at the end.
- Bunch of savoury herbsA bouquet garni — parsley stalks, thyme, a bay leaf, tied. The onion stuck with cloves is the classic oignon clouté; four cloves in three cups of stock is assertive, and two is plenty for most palates.
- Reheating cooked meatThe slices only need to come up to a full simmer in the sauce before the yolks go in. Longer and the meat tightens and the gelatinous parts turn to string.
- YieldFour to five as the book says, though as a modern main it serves about three. Plain boiled potatoes or rice and a little chopped parsley suit it.
Calf's head was a serious economy cut in nineteenth-century British kitchens, boiled whole for the table and yielding the gelatinous meat, tongue and brains that supported an entire family of dishes — mock turtle soup above all, which relies on the head's collagen for the turtle-like body. Cassell's, running alphabetically, gathers several entries on the head together, and this fricassee is the classic second appearance: yesterday's cold slices revived in a white sauce enriched with egg yolk and sharpened with lemon. The technique is straightforwardly French — a velouté finished with a liaison of yolks, the same finish used for blanquette de veau — and its presence in an English domestic dictionary reflects how thoroughly French sauce method had been absorbed into middle-class British cookery. The costing of sixpence, exclusive of the head itself, marks it as a dish for the frugal rather than the fashionable.