Page:Choice collection of cookery receipts (2).pdf/6



Take a piece of lean buttee beef, rub it over with salt-petre, let it lie one night, then take it out and salt it very well with white and bay salt, put it into a pot just fit for it, cover it with water, and let it lie four days; then wipe it well with a cloth, and rub it with pepper finely beaten; put it down close into a pot without any liquor; cover the pot close with paste, and let it bake with large loaves six hours at least; then take it out, and when 'tis cold pick it clean from the skins and string, and beat it in a stone mortar very fine; then season it with nutmeg, cloves, and mace finely beaten, to your taste, and pour in melted butter, which you may work up with it like a paste: Put it close down and even in your pots, and cover it with clarified butter.

Boil your calf's head till the meat is near enough for eating; take it up and cut it in thin slices; then take half a pint of white wine, and three quarters of a pint of good gravy, or strong broth; put to this liquor two anchovies, half a nutmeg, and a little mace, a small onion stuck with cloves; boil this up in the liquor a quarter of an hour, then strain it, and let it boil up again, when it does so throw in the meat, and a little salt to your taste, and some lemon peel shred fine; let it stew a little, and if you please add sweetbreads: Make forc'd meat balls of veal; mix the brains with the yolks of eggs, and fry them to lay for garnish. When the head is ready to be sent in, shake in a bit of butter.

When they are nicely cleaned, put them into a pot, with a bay leaf, and a large onion and as much water as will cover them; season it with salt and a little pepper; bake them with household bread, keep them in this pickle till you want them, then take them out, and cut them in handsome pieces; fry them,