Important: Safety Warning
This recipe calls for animal brains or related nervous-system tissue. Cattle brain and spinal tissue can transmit bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which is fatal and has no treatment.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › The Principles of Cookery › OX BRAINS (en Matelote)
OX BRAINS (en Matelote)
Take half a dozen button-onions, put them whole into a stewpan with an ounce and a half of fresh butter, and move them about until they are soft and yellow. Dredge a dessert-spoonful of flour over them, and moisten with nearly half a pint of good stock and a glassful of red wine. Add a few sprigs of parsley, a sprig of winter savoury, a bay-leaf, a tea-spoonful of salt, half a salt-spoonful of cayenne, half a blade of mace, and three or four small mushrooms if they are at hand. Simmer the sauce gently for half an hour. Clean the ox brains very carefully, and remove all the skin and fibrous parts. Lay them in lukewarm water to soak, then take them up and drain them, put them into the sauce, and let them simmer gently for half an hour. Serve on a hot dish; remove the herbs from the sauce, and pour it upon the brains. Probable cost, exclusive of the wine, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons.