[null and void]

There are scores of calf’s head recipes in mid 19th century American cook books, baked, broiled, boiled with and without the skin.

Not whale calves, but baby cows.

I did misread the effects of eating them as opposite of what Melville intended, though.

[Trumpinator]

There are scores of calf’s head recipes in mid 19th century American cook books, baked, broiled, boiled with and without the skin. Not whale calves, but baby cows. I did misread the effects of eating them as opposite of what Melville intended, though.

In Moby Dick it is whales they eat. Wales were considered very intelligent even then. Cows - dumb creatures.

[Trumpinator]

“In the case of a small Sperm Whale the brains are accounted a fine dish.”

[Gingersnap]

Exactly - baby cow brains are what the epicures of the day would be eating since none of them would be aboard a whaling vessel of any kind.

Those who killed whales might dine on the more exotic parts out of curiosity or for the experience but there’s no way they could have preserved any kind of brain matter back to port.

I’ve cooked brains and they are so delicate that normal handling makes them fall apart or crumble. Salting them would just dissolve them. Drying them would make them crumble. Alcohol would dissolve them.

It’s cow brains.