Sir, – Rosita Boland's delightful foray into the Larousse Gastronomique (November 11th) reawakened childhood tastebuds now long overcome by regulation, political correctness and the never-ending transmission of TV chefs attempting to titillate our appetites.
The Larousse in our kitchen was well-thumbed around the “offal” recipes. As children, my brother and I were fed poached calves’ brains in “beurre noir” (burnt butter) every Saturday.
We might well have had them served to us more often had it not been that the Monaghan-based butcher killed on a Friday and, with great consideration for his customers’ wellbeing, refused to keep calves’ heads on his stone slab into Sunday “in case the meat would taste of Holy Water”. It was only in later life I discovered his “Holy Water” was in fact Jeyes Fluid. – Yours, etc,
DAVID PATTON,
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Slane, Co Meath.