#calf's head

[ratcrev]

Gustave Caillebotte - Calf's Head and Ox Tongue

[trinciante]

To make a Patty of Calves Brains

Clean the Brains very well, and scald them: Then blanch some Asparagus-Tops in a Sauce-pan with a little Butter and Parsly. When they are cold, put them in the Patty with the Brains, and the Yolks of five or six hard Eggs, and some forc’d Meat […]. When it is bak’d, squeeze in the Juice of a Lemon, pour in some drawn Butter and Gravy: So serve it.

Patrick Lamb. Royal-Cookery, or, The Compleat Court-Cook. London, 1716.

[trinciante]

A Calf’s-Head Pie

Almost boil the calf’s head, take out the bones, cut it in thin slices, season and mix it with sliced shivered palates, cocks-combs, oysters, mushrooms, and balls. Lay on butter, and close the pie with a lear.

Susannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete Woman Cook, rev. ed. (London: E. Newbery, 1795).

[trinciante]

Brain Cakes

Take a handful of bread crumbs, a little shred of lemon-peel, pepper, salt, nutmeg, sweet marjoram, parsley shred fine, and the yolks of three eggs; take the brains and skin them, boil and chop them small, so mix them all together; put a little butter in your pan when you fry them, and drop them in as you do fritters. If they should run in your pan, put in a handful more of bread crumbs.

From Susannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete Woman Cook, rev. ed. (London: E. Newbery, 1795).

[trinciante]

A break from capon madness (we're not completely done with that bird yet, though): some palate-cleansing brains from the Dutch edition of Procacchi.

Yes, there is a Dutch edition of this text. (Hearty Dutch burghers weren't above some spectacle on occasion.) Yes, this image is identical to the one published in the 1620 and 1621 German editions. The content is also nearly identical, although there are some interesting things to note about the translation. These things will be said later (maybe here? maybe only in the book?).

Procacchi, Giaccomo. Voorlegh Boeck ofte Maniere om verscheyden Soorten van Spijse soo gosoden als Gebraden, aende Vorcke voor te Snyde ende am dienen. Eerst int Italiensch beschreyven door Giaccomo Procacchi. Ende nu van nieuws in onse Nederduytsche taele getrouwelick obergeset. Leyden: Jacob Roels Boeckverocper, 1639. (Image via Google Books. Hooray for digitization!)