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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To Roll a Calf's Head
453. When sufficiently tender by boiling, remove the bones, roll it, tie it tightly with a cloth and tape, or put it in a mould. Finish boiling, and serve it with a good white sauce.
Or, if stewed brown the cloth must be omitted, and it must be stewed in a good gravy, and garnished as hashed or stewed calf's head. Or, Scald the skin of a calf's head, and take out the brains, boil it till the bones will come out easily. Then proceed as "to roll a breast of veal" (446). Skin and beat the brains with the egg and milk, to form the light batter, adding a few bread-crumbs, and serve it hot with a well seasoned brown gravy. It must be very neatly rolled. To STEW A CALF'S FOOT. 454. After thoroughly cleaning, cut the foot into well-shaped pieces, SWEETBREADS. and stew them with veal or beef, of the same weight; should the meat not have hung some days it must be beaten. Pepper and salt the above on each side, and lay it in a stew pan with cold water, stew till quite tender, probably for three or four hours. Strain the gravy from the meat, and, when perfectly cold, remove every particle of fat, add cayenne and lemon juice; if a brown gravy is desired flavour with some browning, walnut ketchup, and (if approved) a little white wine; but should veal be used it will be better to substitute cucumber ketchup, thickened cream or milk, with a little lemon peel. The feet must be thoroughly warmed up in the gravy, but not boiled. Garnish with crisp parsley, or lemon in slices. Calves' feet may be boiled till tender, and served with parsley and butter, and a little lemon pickle served on the dish as a garnish.
This is a boned, rolled and pressed calf's head, finished either white or brown, with the brains beaten into a batter and served alongside. It cannot be reproduced today, and the reasons are specific rather than general squeamishness.
- The brains are the disqualifying ingredientCattle nervous tissue is treated as specified risk material because it concentrates the infectious agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which causes variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. The controls are tied to the age of the animal, but no cooking, boiling or scalding step inactivates the agent.
- Sale is restricted, not just discouragedSale is restricted, not merely discouraged -- In the UK, the EU and the United States, specified risk material from cattle is excluded from the human food chain by law, though the thresholds depend on the age of the animal. Supply is regulated rather than uniformly prohibited, and a home cook should not seek a workaround.
- Nothing here is a matter of techniqueThe rolling, the cloth and tape, the mould, the choice of white sauce or brown gravy are all sound period practice for pressed meats. The recipe fails on its raw material alone.
- If you want the effect, look elsewherePressed, rolled and moulded meats served cold in slices are still made, and a current recipe for rolled breast of veal or a brawn from another cut will give the same texture and presentation. Use one of those rather than adapting this.
- The calf's foot section is a separate matterCalves' feet are still sold and eaten, and the long gelatinous stew described in entry 454 belongs to a different tradition from the head. It should be read as its own recipe, not as part of this one.