Skip to main content
Main

Calf's Head Soup Another Way

A soup made from a calf's head, simmered with water, beef stock, white wine, onions, spices, and garnished with herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hodgson, Mary, fl. 1855 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Head Soup Another Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head well.

  2. Place the head in a pot and bring to a boil with one gallon of water.

  3. When the head is half done, remove the meat, cut into small pieces, carefully removing all the bones.

Make the soup

  1. Add the meat to the soup with a quart of beef stock, season with black pepper, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  2. Fry two onions; cut them into thin slices, cook in butter, stir in a little flour to thicken the gravy, and add this to the soup.

  3. About ten minutes before serving, add some chives and parsley.

  4. Squeeze a lemon into the tureen and pour the soup into it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

331Calories
28 gProtein
16 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hodgson, Mary, fl. 1855. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's head (in the method)
Provides the meat and gelatin that give the soup its body and richness.
Beef stock
Adds savoury depth as the liquid base of the soup.
Onions
Fried and sliced, they add sweetness and flavour to the gravy.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat and onions.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the soup.

The step that matters

Removing the bones when the head is half done. Bone fragments are easy to miss in soft, cooked meat and can be swallowed. Removing them carefully while the meat is still firm makes it easier to pick out every piece.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes