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Breaded Calf's Brains
Soak the brains in cold water until well bleached. Put them in a stewpan with a tablespoonful of vinegar, a small onion, sliced, a blade of mace, 2 or 3 cloves, salt and pepper, a 1/2 glass of white wine, and sufficient water to cover. Let them simmer half an hour, and take them out to cool and drain. When quite cold, slice the brain in rather thin slices, dip them in egg and seasoned bread crumbs, and saute in butter or nice drippings. Serve as an entree garnished with parsley, or as a border to boiled rice or some delicate vegetable.
This is a nineteenth-century treatment of a cut that food safety law has since moved out of reach. The notes below explain the vocabulary and the reason the dish is no longer made.
- Why this one is off the tableBovine brain and spinal cord are classed as specified risk material because of the transmissible prion that causes BSE, and the human illness linked to it. Prions are proteins, not microbes: soaking, simmering, breading and sauteing do nothing to inactivate them, so no cooking instruction in this recipe addresses the hazard.
- The law, not just the adviceUnder EU and UK rules the bovine skull, including the brain, is classed as specified risk material and excluded from the food chain for cattle over twelve months of age; US rules bar brain and other specified risk material from cattle over thirty months. Brain from younger animals is still sold in some countries under those restrictions, which a home cook cannot verify at the counter. If you want a crumbed and sauteed entree, work from a current recipe using another ingredient.
- "Blade of mace"Mace is the lacy covering of the nutmeg seed; a blade is one dried fragment of that covering, and modern equivalents given for it range from about a quarter to a half teaspoon of ground mace. It was a standard aromatic for pale meats and fish in this period.
- "A 1/2 glass of white wine"A wine glass in period measure is about two fluid ounces, so half a glass is roughly two tablespoons. It is a poaching liquor, not a sauce, and the vinegar beside it does the same work of firming the surface.
- "Nice drippings"Rendered fat saved from roasting, usually beef, kept in a crock by the stove. The recipe treats it as an alternative to butter for frying, as period books frequently do.
- "Serve as an entree"In this period an entree is a made dish served between the heavier courses, not the main plate of the meal. The instruction to arrange the slices as a border around rice or a vegetable belongs to the same service style, where the platter itself was part of the presentation.