No. 1518

Calf's Head en Tortue, Dressed

Tete de Veau Dressee en Tortue

Bone half of a very white calf's head, put it into boiling water for fifteen minutes, then cut it up and finish cooking it in a white stock (No. 182) acidulated with lemon juice; it will take three hours to boil slowly. Have a silver plated dish with a border of the same; in the center of this fasten a fried bread pyramid covered with raw forcemeat and then poached in the heater or slack oven; prepare a garnishing composed of small quenelles molded with a coffeespoon (No. 155) and poached, large cocks'-combs, olives, fresh mushroom heads, round truffles and green pickles cut into small half-inch diameter balls. Keep in a bain-marie a slightly tomatoed Madeira sauce (No. 492) with a little truffle moistening. Half an hour before serving drain the pieces of head on a cloth, pare them rounded, and slit the outside gristle of the ear in order to be able to turn it backward, then lay them in a saucepan with half of the sauce, let simmer over a gentle fire and just when prepared to serve set the ear on the top of the pyramid, fastening it down with a small skewer, and surround this support with the remainder of the head and garnishings; cover over lightly with the sauce and pour the rest into a sauce-bowl to be served at the same time as the entree.

← No. 1517 Calf's Head in Tortue Veal No. 1519 Calf's Head Plain or Vinaigrette →

For the Modern Kitchen

An elaborate Delmonico's centerpiece that assumes a butcher who will bone a calf's head for you and a pantry stocked with cocks'-combs. The head itself is straightforward simmering; the difficulty is entirely in the assembly.

The headHalf a calf's head, boned, is a special order from a halal, kosher or old-style butcher; expect roughly 3-4 lb of meat, skin and tongue. Whole heads are still sold in some markets, and the cheek and skin alone will give you the gelatinous texture the dish depends on.
Blanch, then cook in a white bathThe fifteen minutes in boiling water is a blanch to firm the skin and clear the scum, not part of the cooking. The white stock acidulated with lemon works on the same principle as a blanc: the acid helps keep the skin pale rather than grey. Slow simmering for three hours is what the recipe specifies; the skin should be yielding but not collapsing, since it has to be pared into neat rounds afterward.
Cocks'-combsLarge cocks'-combs, blanched and peeled, are essentially unobtainable outside specialist poultry suppliers. Small poached quenelles, whole mushroom caps and pitted olives carry the garnish perfectly well without them.
Green picklesThese are cornichons or gherkins in brine, cut with a small melon baller into half-inch spheres, purely for uniformity of shape. The vinegar is the point: it cuts the gelatin and the Madeira.
The forcemeat pyramidA cone of fried bread masked with raw forcemeat, then set in the heater or a slack oven -- a low one, in modern terms somewhere in the region of 250-300F -- until the forcemeat is firm to the touch. It is a structural plinth, not a garnish; it exists to hold the ear upright.
Bain-marie means holding, not cookingThe tomatoed Madeira sauce sits over hot water so it stays below a simmer. Reduced or boiled at the last minute it will break and go dull, and this sauce is meant to glaze.
Finish gentlyThe pared pieces are reheated in half the sauce over low heat for the final half hour. Do not let them boil at this stage; the skin has already given up its gelatin and will fray.
YieldThe recipe gives no number. Half a head dressed this way would plausibly serve six to eight as an entree in the old sense, that is one course among several.

A Little History

En tortue means turtle-style, and the garnish here is the one associated with the cookery of real sea turtle: quenelles, cocks'-combs, olives, mushrooms, truffles and gherkins in a dark madeira sauce. Calf's head took turtle's place because the boned, blanched skin has the same gelatinous, faintly bland quality once cooked, which is also why mock turtle soup was built on it. Ranhofer, who ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, gives several calf's-head preparations in sequence, from this dressed pyramid down to the plain boiled head with vinaigrette, a reminder that the head was cheap material to be made grand by labor rather than by cost. The silver-plated dish with its matching border and the ear pinned upright with a skewer belong squarely to the era's competitive-display cooking, where a dish was judged standing on the sideboard before anyone tasted it.