The liquor of the head

Enjoying Guernsey Dishes of 1815, (Edited by J Stevens Cox FSA and published by Guernsey's own The Toucan Press in 1979) which Anna and Anton gave me. The language is wonderful, for example:

REMARKS FOR CALF'S FOOT JELLY BY AUNT GUILLE

2 quarts of water per neat foot with the leather on; 2 feet without the skin are equal to one with the leather on; 2 Calf's feet with the skin are equal to one Neat's foot:-- to clarify the jelly you require the whites and shells of 5 eggs to each quart of water. Stir all the time till it boils.

Sounds disgusting. A neat I think is an old word for a cow. This one is worse:

MOCK TURTLE SOUP. Mrs. BRETT'S RECIPE

Take a calf's head--to be well cleaned and laid in cold water for an hour cleansing it twice after--take out the brains and boil them in a small piece of linen cloth with a few leaves of sage for a quarter of an hour. Boil the head 2 hours, put the liquor into a separate dish and the next day remove the fat--put 1lb of lean beef cut small into a pint of water and boil it till all the gravy is out--mix it with the liquor of the head--strip the meat off the bones and cut the tongue and all up together.

Make forcemeat balls with bread, eggs, nutmeg, pepper and salt with a little flour in the hand to form the balls frying them in a pan with a little butter until they get brown. Add the yolks of 12 eggs boiled hard--putting the whole into the stewpan--adding one teacupful of Ketchup--season with cayenne, common pepper and salt according to taste. Thickening with a little flour before making up.

Mixing things with "the liquor of the head" is plain nasty. Although there are some interesting ingredients being used in Guernsey at that time.

Otherwise little to report. Work somewhat on the tiresome side, and was very pleased to get home in the evening and chill out by eating a slice of my chocolate birthday cake, and reading in my new study.