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Calf's Head Mould
Cut the remains of a cold calf's head into neat slices. Make some clear savoury jelly with gelatine (see ASPIC JELLY). Put a little of the jelly at the bottom of a plain mould which has been soaked in cold water. Let it set a little, then arrange the pieces of meat in the mould, making them look as nice as possible with a little parsley, pieces of ham or tongue, and rings of hard-boiled egg. Leave space between the pieces of meat for the jelly to run through. Nearly fill the mould with the meat, pour the jelly over it, and put it in a cool place till stiff enough to turn out. Time, twelve hours to set. Sufficient for a breakfast dish. Probable cost, 1s. for a moderate-sized mould, exclusive of the meat.
A Victorian way of using up the remains of a boiled calf's head: cold meat suspended in aspic and turned out whole. The technique transfers to any cooked meat, but a few of the assumptions behind it need updating.
- The hinge: set the jelly in stagesThe instruction to let the base layer set "a little" before laying in the meat is the whole trick. If the jelly is still liquid the pieces sink and the pattern collapses; if it is fully firm the next layer will not bond and the mould shears when turned out. Work with jelly at the consistency of unbeaten egg white.
- Calf's headAlmost impossible to buy whole outside a specialist butcher, and it must be ordered. The dish works with any cooked, gelatinous meat cut in neat slices — braised veal breast, poached ox tongue, or the meat from a boiled ham hock.
- Aspic strengthThe book sends you to its own aspic recipe. Modern powdered gelatine is standardised at roughly 1 tablespoon (about 7 g, one envelope) to 2 cups of well-flavoured stock for a jelly firm enough to unmould; leaf gelatine is used at similar weight. Victorian gelatine varied, so their proportions are not reliable guidance.
- "A cool place" means the refrigeratorThe original assumes a stone larder. Twelve hours at modern room temperature with cooked meat in stock is not acceptable — assemble and set the mould in the refrigerator, and keep it there until it goes to the table.
- Soaking the mouldWetting the mould with cold water, as directed, is what lets the set jelly release. Do not oil or line it. To turn out, dip briefly in hot water to the rim, count to five, and invert onto a chilled plate.
- DecorationParsley, ham, tongue and hard-boiled egg presumably supplied colour against pale veal; the book only says to make the pieces look as nice as possible. The direction to leave space between the pieces is practical: jelly must run right through or the mould will have dry pockets and fall apart when cut.
- Yield and servingThe book says only that a 'moderate-sized mould' is sufficient for a breakfast dish, and gives no capacity; a mould of about a pint to a pint and a half is a reasonable modern guess. Serve it cut in wedges rather than sliced, with mustard or a sharp salad.
- The costOne shilling covers only the jelly and garnish, the meat being leftovers. That is the point of the recipe — it is an economy dish dressed to look like a made one.
Moulded meat in aspic sat at the centre of the late-Victorian cold table, and Cassell's places this among the household's second-day dishes: a boiled calf's head fed the family hot one day and reappeared, glazed and decorated, at breakfast or luncheon the next. Calf's head was cheap, richly gelatinous and, boiled with its brains and tongue, a staple of nineteenth-century British and French kitchens — mock turtle soup was built on it. The moulded form owes its popularity to the industrial gelatine that became widely available in the second half of the century; before that a cook had to extract her own jelly from calves' feet, a day's work in itself. Packet gelatine removed that labour, though the jelly still had to be built on stock and clarified with egg white, and elaborately patterned cold moulds seem to have spread from grand kitchens to ordinary ones — thrift presented as ornament.