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Herb Sauce
Take two parts of parsley to one of chervil and chives, chop them finely, and pour over as much vinegar as will rather more than cover them. Let them infuse at least an hour, to draw out the flavour of the herbs. This is the usual accompaniment on the Continent to boiled calf's head. A small quantity of other herbs, such as thyme, marjoram, basil, or sage, may be used, if the flavour is liked, but they are not generally included in herb sauce properly so called. Probable cost, 6d. per half-pint. Sufficient for four or five persons.
An uncooked infusion rather than a sauce in the emulsified sense: chopped herbs steeped in vinegar, closer to a sharp relish. It needs almost nothing but attention to proportion and timing.
- The proportions"Two parts parsley to one of chervil and chives" could mean two parts parsley to one part each of the other two, or two parts parsley to one part of the two combined; the book does not say, and it gives no weights or measures, so any cup equivalent is a modern guess.
- ChervilRarely stocked in supermarkets and it wilts within days. It carries a faint anise note that parsley does not; tarragon in small quantity is the nearest substitute, though it is stronger and should be used at half the amount.
- Choose the vinegar carefullyThe book does not say which vinegar. A white wine or cider vinegar at 5 or 6 per cent suits the herbs; balsamic and heavily flavoured vinegars will bury them.
- Chop, do not bruiseA sharp knife and a single decisive pass keeps the parsley green. Chopping repeatedly with a dull blade releases water and darkens the mixture.
- Infusion timeAn hour is the minimum given. Left much longer the herbs will dull in the acid and the flavour flatten, so make it the same day it is served.
- YieldHalf a pint in Cassell's is 10 imperial fluid ounces, about 1 1/4 US cups, and the book calls that enough for four or five. That is a generous spoonful or two each alongside the meat.
- What to serve it withBoiled calf's head is unlikely to appear on a modern table. The same sauce works with any plain boiled or poached meat, boiled tongue, a simmered pork shoulder, or poached chicken, where its whole job is to cut richness.
- The cost note"Probable cost, 6d. per half-pint" is a late-Victorian retail figure and has no modern equivalent worth calculating; Cassell's included such notes so housekeepers could price a menu in advance.
Cassell's places this among the plainest of the Continental accompaniments, and its identity rests on the trio of parsley, chervil and chives rather than on any cooking. Those three, with tarragon, are the herbs French kitchens group as fines herbes, delicate leaves added raw or at the last moment because heat destroys them; the same logic explains the reservation here about thyme, marjoram, basil and sage -- permitted if the flavour is liked, but held not to belong to herb sauce "properly so called" -- which are the robust herbs of long-simmered cookery. The pairing with boiled calf's head reflects a nineteenth-century economy in which the whole animal was eaten and the head, gelatinous and mild, was a respectable dish in both French and English households, generally served with something sharp to lift it. The vinegar infusion belongs to a broad family of cold cut-through sauces of the period, related to sauce ravigote in its vinaigrette form and to the herb vinegars that Victorian cooks kept bottled on the shelf.