How to cook brains - archive, 1934

After Christmas we may be inclined more benevolently towards lighter food. As far as brains and sweetbreads are concerned there are few dishes more delicate or more delicious – when we are in the mood for them. Their cooking is simple, but some care must be exercised over their preparation. Once they are cooked, it is a matter of garnish, and we can eat them as simply as we please, or choose one out of the eighty or so elaborations which have been invented.

Let us take the brains first. Remove the membrane enclosing them, and soak them in cold water, or under a running tap, until they are white. Then put them into a boiling court-bouillon, skim and cook gently for half an hour. (If you cook them longer it will not matter much, as they will simply get firmer without being spoiled.) The court-bouillon should be made as follows:–

A quart of water, a quarter of an ounce of salt, a small onion stuck with two cloves, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and a bouquet of parsley, thyme, and bayleaf. Let this boil gently for ten minutes, then add four or five peppercorns and cook for ten minutes longer. At the end of this time strain it and use it for the brains, which should be boiled gently for half an hour for ox or calf’s brains, about a quarter of an hour for sheep’s. Drain the brains carefully before using them in some such way as the following.

Au beurre noir: Dish them whole or in slices, season with salt and pepper, and pour over them some black butter, or, if you prefer it, some beurre, noisette, which is butter just browned golden and nutty-smelling, seasoned with a little chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice. You can slice the brains, dip them in butter, and treat them as fritters, or you can serve them en fritot – that is to say; sliced and marinated, after they have been cooked, in a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and olive oil, egg-and-breadcrumbed, and fried in deep fat. This fashion demands a tomato sauce.

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Another, a la maréchaIe, serves them fried as above and with a garnish of asparagus tips. You can cut them up and serve them en coquille in a Béchamel sauce and sprinkled with grated, cheese, or you can snake them into a soufflé, or serve them with a Sauce Poulette. And there are many other ways, more or less elaborate.

Sweetbreads are prepared as follows. (The best sweetbreads, by the way, are the heart sweetbread, the throat sweet-bread being of inferior quality.) Veal sweetbreads (ris de veau) are also, from their size, better than lamb’s (ris d’agneau), which, however, can be served in the same way as the veal ones.

Soak the sweetbreads in water for at least four hours before they are wanted, changing the water as it colours, or if they are under a running tap three hours will do. When they are white put them into a saucepan with plenty of cold water, bring slowly to the boil, and boil for two minutes only. Take them out with a strainer and plunge them at once into cold water, which it will be best to renew to hasten their cooling. Trim them, lay them between two clean cloths, and put a plate or board over them and on it a 41b. weight. Keep this on for an hour. They are then ready for cooking, and, needless to say, this preparation may be done overnight. They can now either be braised, poached, or grilled, braising being the more common procedure. If they are ordinarily braised they are usually served with the braising sauce, but an interesting and unusual fashion is a Maréchale, when they are braised and then served with a sauce à la crème.

This is an edited extract.