Wash the head in warm water. Then lay it in clean hot water and
let it soak awhile. This will blanch it. Take out the brains and
the black part of the eyes. Tie the head in a cloth, and put it
into a large fish-kettle, with plenty of cold water, and add some
salt to throw up the scum, which must be taken off as it rises.
Let the head boil gently about three hours.
Put eight or ten sage leaves, and as much parsley, into a small
sauce-pan with a little water, and boil them half an hour. Then
chop them fine, and set them ready on a plate. Wash the brains
well in two warm waters, and then soak them for an hour in a basin
of cold water with a little salt in it. Remove the skin and
strings, and then put the brains into a stew-pan with plenty of
cold water, and let them boil gently for a quarter of an hour,
skimming them well. Take them out, chop them, and mix them with
the sage and parsley leaves, two table-spoonfuls of melted butter,
and the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs, and pepper and salt to
your taste. Then put the mixture into a sauce-pan and set it on
coals to warm.
Take up the head when it is sufficiently boiled, score it in
diamonds, brush it all over with beaten egg, and strew it with a
mixture of grated bread-crumbs, and chopped sage and parsley.
Stick a few bits of butter over it, and set it in a Dutch oven to
brown. Serve it up with the brains laid round it. Or you may send
to table the brains and the tongue in a small separate dish,
having first trimmed the tongue and cut off the roots. Have also
parsley-sauce in a boat. You may garnish with very thin small
slices of broiled ham, curled up.
If you get a calf's head with the hair on, sprinkle it all over
with pounded rosin, and dip it into boiling water. This will make
the hairs scrape off easily.