Fête de Tête de Veau in Dordogne
 

Food question: We live half the year in the Dordogne, near Castelnaud-La Chapelle. This year's annual "Tête de Veau" dinner is coming up on Sept. 16 in the village. We've always skipped it. This year I'm wondering if we should be brave enough to give it a try.

The main course for the grand luncheon banquet is, obviously, Tête de Veau, a dish which we have never dared to try. This may be the year.

I've spoken to the local butcher/charcutier who will be preparing the dish, and he has assured me that his recipe does NOT include the brains. Nevertheless, we're leary.

Who among you brave, intrepid Fodorites has actually eaten this dish before, and what can you tell me? By the way, my husband loves tongue (I'm neutral), I adore sweetbreads and foie gras, not big on tripe or kidneys. I've eaten roasted duck hearts, iguana tail, raw sea urchin liver. We are brave. I'm just not sure about this one...

Any advice?

To paraphrase Claude Lévi-Strauss, food must be thought before it is eaten. Aside from brains, what is there in the tête de veau that would be objectionable from your point of view?

Although I must admit that I have never tasted Tete de Veau, I can't imagine that you wouldn't go to your village's fete. Usually they are a lot of fun, and a great way to meet new people, re-connect with others.

We attended our village's Mechoui yesterday- barbecued whole lamb, which may be easier to take than Tete de Veau, but usually with this type of meal you get so many other dishes that you wouldn't even have to eat much (or any) if you found you didnt like it.

We had aperitif, melon/port/ham, barbecued lamb with lots of beans 'a l'ancienne' ,salad cheese, dessert, coffee, digestif - and a lot of wine throughout the meal.

We not only attend, but work at most of these fetes, because it is such a good way to be part of your community. (We live here full time and were told right from the start that if we were going to belong, we needed to participate, and so were dragged off by our neighbour to the first of many village meetings here.)

So for me, it's a no-brainer - if you live there and want to be part of the community you go, you probably will like the meal if you like sweetbreads, foie, etc. (let alone iguana and sea urchin) and even if you don't no-one is going to report you to the food police.

Bon courage et bon apetit.

I was talked into Tete de Veau in a restaurant in Montemartre a few yeas ago. It was the specialite du maison. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, cow's nose. Some fairly tasty meat and a lot of gristle. Definitely an acquired taste.

Carlux: Oh, we'll probably go, just as we go to the other fêtes and dinners in our village during the time we're here. We do like to participate and spend time with our friends and neighbors. It's just that I've heard the texture is a sort of combined sponginess and gristle. Essentially, the skin from the calf's head is used to wrap up a filling of tongue, cheeks and other goodies picked off the skull. Some recipes do include the brains in the mix. The tied-up bundle is then poached or cooked in some sort of light sauce, with vegetables, then sliced and served with a vinaigrette.
I'm just hoping I can get past the texture, which sounds a little scary to me. But we're brave; I'm sure we'll probably go, and dive in with (urp) gusto!
By the way, I love going to a Mechoui! I didn't know there was one in Carlux recently; I saw signs for one in Besse a couple of weeks ago, but we were busy that day.

Hi L,

>I adore sweetbreads...

And you are concerned about brains?

A tete de veau is mostly face meat, some tongue, sweetbreads and brains.

((I))

I assume wine is served? I'd drink a lot of that before the meal
;-)

Mechoui in Carlux is always the first Sunday in September, ao yo can book for next year. What is amusing is that it started as a way to thank people who had worked on our earlier, larger, fete, in late August (5000 crepes, dinner for 300, donkey races, etc.) Guess who works on the Mechoui when they have finally recovered from working on the Fete des Crepes??? Just as well we enjoy the participation.

Thanks Carlux, Ira and others...We'll go, we'll drink red wine, we'll have a great time. Ira -- this charcutier didn't mention using ris de veau in his recipe, just the face/skin, head meat and tongue, but if it's included, I'll be all over it. And Carlux, maybe I'll see you at next year's Mechoui -- I'm marking it on my calendar. Thanks all, and I'll post a note after the event!

On my first independent trip to Paris in 1972, my friends and I ate at a cavernous, cheap restaurant that had tete de veau on the menu. We couldn't imagine what it might be-- did it come as an intact head on a plate? Was it a euphemism of some sort?

We tried asking the waiter to describe it, but despite our asking in French he went and got an English-speaking waiter to come and describe it for us. This waiter said, with great flourish, "Head of veal." No further explanations. We were not brave enough to find out for ourselves.

I am glad to learn, 34 years later, what this dish actually consists of.

These village festivals sound wonderful, especially the barbecued lamb.

I've eaten it in Paris & it was very nice - pretty much just like a galantine of cold meats, with a quite mild flavour. If you like pressed tongue, you should like tete de veau.

Do you ever eat sausage?

Or, come to the Eastern Shore of the US for the Apple Scrapple Festival.
hehehehe...clearly you understand what the apples are... now scrapple?
Pig's noses! Cornmeal, spices. YUM.
I'd go to that fete, I'd try...

If I lived half a year in the Dordogne, I'd certainly be eager to experience all the local festivals taking place during the time I might spend there. So why miss this one?

When I was a child, I ate brains several times. I'm not sure whose brains they were--calf or lamb--I think calf. They were soft and creamy and fairly pleasant, somewhat the texture of bone marrow but without the greasiness. It has been decades since I've had it.

I've never had calf's head. however, I know that an entire head of, I think, a lamb is a very common fetival dish in southern Italy and was common in in Italian neighborhoods of NYC before my time. My mother used to rave about the lamb's heads she enjoyed as a child on certain holidays or maybe it was on a saint's day. Anyway, I've never had it, but I can't imagine why it would be bad. The meat is probably very tender. I've been served whole fish plenty of times, with intact head and eyes. But it would probably be a bit disconcerting to look at an intact head, especially the eyes. But either you're a meat eater or you're not a meat eater. If you're a meat eater, the meat you eat comes from an animal that was killed and that once had a head, and if an animal is going to be killed for the use of humans, I think it is less wasteful and more respectful to use every little bit of it and not kill it just to use certain selected parts and discard the rest as trash. so, if you're not vegetarian, why not eat the head.

You lucky cow, you (no pun intended)!
I wouldn't let a few cheeks, noses and brains get in the way of my hedonistic quest. I live for these kind of things.

Sh!t ! We're going to miss the fete by only a couple of weeks!

Anybody know of anything similar, food-and-or-wine-related events, happening in the first 2 weeks of October in the Dordognoe/Lot areas?

Sorry to barge in, but I would love to know of any food festivals in the Dordogne for the third week in October. I cannot think of anything more scrumptious than a mechoui fete....oh how I love that dish!

Thanks, all, for your words of encouragement, and I agree with you all: of course we won't miss the party, and of course, we'll eat the tête de veau!
Now that the summer's winding down, there are fewer village dinners coming, although later on in the fall we'll start seeing the "repas de chasse" coming along, usually featuring venison and wild boar dishes.
On the same weekend as the fête de tête de veau feast, the village of Siorac-en-Périgord is having the following event, on Sun. Sept 17 beginning at 12:30:
Sangria et ses amuse-gueule, tourin blanchi (the famous egg and garlic soup of the region), filet de loup sur sa purée d'ail (it's fish, not wolf meat, served on a garlic purée), carré d'entrecôte à l'échalote (I'm thinking this is some sort of beef rib roast with shallots), plus vegetables, salade, cheese plate and dessert (poire-caramel). 22€, includes wine and coffee. And tea dancing to the music of l'orchestre Farandole.
These community dinners sure beat the spaghetti feeds and pancake breakfasts that my hometown used to put on.

Sangria ??

Sounds fantastic, though - aren't you lucky !

Can someone explain what Mechoui is? Thanks.

I've only had mechoui in Morocco. This was about 10 years ago and I still have amazing food memories. It is lamb which has been roasted a long time in a pit and the meat gets very soft but crunchy also...more than that I can't really tell you. I read that there are good versions served in Paris at places such as Chez Omar....