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The Virginia Housewife

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The Virginia Housewife

Ingredients

Directions

  1. salt, make them in little cakes with the yelk of an egg, fry them a nice brown, boil six eggs hard, leave one whole and divide the others exactly in two, have some bits of paste nicely baked; when the head is taken from the oven, lay the whole egg in the middle, and dispose the others, with the brain cakes and bits of paste tastily around it. If it be wanted as soup, do not reduce the gravy so much, and after stewing the head, serve it in a tureen with the brain cakes and forcemeat balls fried, in place of the eggs and paste. The tongue should be salted and put in brine; they are very delicate, and four of them boiled and pealed, and served with four small chickens boiled, make a handsome dish, either cold or hot, with parsley and butter poured over them.

  2. TO GRILL A CALF'S HEAD. CLEAN and divide it as for the turtle, take out the brains and tongue, boil it tender, take the eyes out whole, and cut the flesh from the skull in small pieces; take some of the water it was boiled in for gravy, put to it salt, cayenne pepper, a grated nutmeg, with a spoonful of lemon pickle; stew it till it is well flavoured, take the jowl or chop, take out the bones, and cover it with bread crumbs, chopped parsley, pepper and salt, set it in an oven to brown, thicken the gravy with the yelks of two eggs and a spoonful of butter rubbed into two of flour, stew the head in it a few minutes, put it in the dish, and lay the grilled chop on it; garnish it with brain cakes and broiled sweetbreads.

  3. 40 THE VIRGINIA HOUSEWIFE.

  4. TO COLLAR A CALF'S HEAD. AFTER cleaning it nicely, saw the bone down the middle of the skull, but do not separate the head, take out the brains and tongue, boil it tender enough to remove the bones, which must be taken entirely out; lay it on a board, have a good quantity of chop- ped parsley seasoned with mace, nutmeg, pepper and salt — spread a layer of this, then one of thick slices of ham, another of parsley and one of ham, roll it up tight, sew a cloth over it, and bind that round with tape; boil it half an hour, and when cold press it. It must be kept covered with vinegar and water, and is very delicious eaten with sallad or oil and vinegar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

831Calories
51 gProtein
23 gFat
102 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot 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 Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, butter, flour, egg, chicken, parsley, nutmeg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, butter, flour, egg, chicken, parsley, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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