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.
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Sheep's Head Soup
Take two sheep's heads, wash, split, and soak them in lukewarm water, remove the brains, and put them into a stewpan with a bunch of sweet herbs, two carrots, a turnip, two onions, a leek, three or four sticks of celery, a small lump of sugar, a spoonful of mixed mustard, and a little pepper and salt. Pour two quarts of water over all, bring the liquor to the boil, skim it carefully, draw the pan to the side of the fire, and let its contents simmer gently for two hours. Wash the brains, clear them from fibre, boil them for a quarter of an hour, and beat them till smooth; put with them a slice of fresh butter, two table-spoonfuls of fine oatmeal, two table-spoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, and a tea-spoonful of tarragon vinegar. Stir the mixture into the soup, and let it simmer again for two hours. Skin the tongues, and cut them and the meat from the head into neat mouthfuls. Let them heat again in the soup, add a glassful of light wine, and serve. Time, four hours and a half. Probable cost, sheep's head, 1s. 2d. to 1s. 6d. Sufficient for six or eight persons.