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Calf's Head in a Mould
Boil a calf's head until tender, the day before you wish to use it. When cold chop, not too small, and season to taste with pepper, salt and lemon juice. Prepare half as much cold ham, fat and lean also minced as you have of the chopped calf's head. Butter a mold well, and lay in the bottom a layer of the calf's head, then one of ham, so on until the shape is full, pressing each layer hard, when you have moistened it with the liquor in which the head was boiled. Pour more on the top, and when it has soaked in well, cover with a paste made of flour and water. Bake one hour. Remove the paste when it is quite cold, and turn out carefully. A good relish.
A pressed meat loaf set with its own gelatin — closer to a head cheese or brawn than to anything baked. The success of it rests entirely on the cooking liquor, which is what turns the layers into a sliceable block.
- The hinge: use the cooking liquor, not water or brothA calf's head is almost entirely skin, bone and connective tissue, so the liquid it boils in becomes heavily gelatinous and sets firm when cold. Moisten every layer with it and pour more over the top; if you substitute stock from a carton the mould will not hold together when turned out.
- Sourcing the headWhole calf's heads are a special order from a halal, kosher or old-style butcher, and usually arrive split, with the brains and tongue removed or bagged separately. Weights vary a good deal with the age of the animal and how much is trimmed, so ask the butcher what meat yield to expect. Two pig's trotters plus 2-3 lb of veal shank and skin will give a comparable gelatin-rich result if no head is to be had.
- "Until tender" means hoursNo time is given: a split calf's head will generally need somewhere between two and four hours at a bare simmer, until the meat pulls freely from the bone. Skim the scum early or the liquor will be cloudy and grey. Cool the meat in the liquid, then chill both overnight — which is why the recipe has you boil it the day before.
- The paste is a seal, not a crustFlour-and-water paste stiff enough to roll — call it 2 parts flour to 1 part water by weight — is luting paste, used to keep steam in. It bakes to an inedible slab and is discarded. Foil and a tight lid do the same job.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, as was usual in household books before oven thermometers came into common use. One hour in a covered mould is a gentle bake to melt and redistribute the gelatin, not to cook raw meat, so a moderate oven — something in the region of 325-350F — is a reasonable modern equivalent. Standing the mould in a water bath keeps the edges from drying.
- Cool under weightThe recipe says to press each layer hard but says nothing about after the bake. Set a board and a couple of tins on top while it chills overnight; without that, the loaf turns out ragged and shows air pockets when sliced.
- SaltHam of the period was generally drier and saltier than most modern supermarket ham, but it is still the salt in the dish. Season the calf's head lightly and taste the mixture cold, when salt reads weaker than it does warm.
- Yield and servingA 2-quart loaf tin filled with roughly 2 lb chopped head and 1 lb ham gives about 12 slices. Serve cold with mustard, pickled walnuts or a sharp vinaigrette — "a good relish" here means a savoury item for a cold table or supper, not a condiment.
Pressed and moulded meats of this kind descend from the brawn and collared head of English cookery, where an animal's head was boiled down, chopped, packed into a shape and left to set in its own jelly. The calf's head was often said to be a more refined version of a thrifty method: it fed a table from a cut that cost little, but yielded pale, delicate meat rather than the coarser pork brawn, and it turned out of the mould looking deliberate. American household books of the period are generally reported to have carried head recipes of several kinds ed head, head cheese carcarcass or from a butcher who broke one down had to have uses for everything. The layering of ham with the veal is a period touch for both colour and seasoning: the pink and pale stripes show in cross-section, and the cured meat supplies the salt that the bland boiled head lacks. Within a generation such dishes had largely retreated to the delicatessen counter, and the calf's head with them.