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Fricasseed Calf's Feet

A fricassée of calf's feet, battered and fried, served with melted butter, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fricasseed Calf's Feet

8 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. If the feet are purchased uncleaned, dip them into warm water repeatedly and scrape off the hair, first one foot then the other, until the skin looks clean, keeping a saucepan of water by the fire until finished.

  2. After washing and soaking in cold water, boil the feet in just enough water to cover them until the bones come easily away.

  3. Pick the meat out, strain the liquor into a clean vessel, and put the meat into a pie dish until the next day.

Batter and fry

  1. Cut the meat into slices about 1/2 inch thick.

  2. Lay the slices in a stiff batter made of egg, flour, and bread crumbs in the above proportion; season with pepper and salt.

  3. Plunge the battered slices into a pan of boiling lard.

  4. Fry the slices until nicely browned, dry them before the fire for a minute or two, dish them on a napkin, and garnish with tufts of parsley.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter, mustard, and vinegar.

  2. Save the liquor for enriching gravies or making jellies.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

461Calories
13 gProtein
1 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the stiff batter that coats the slices and crisps when fried.
Bread crumbs
Adds body to the batter and gives the coating a crisp, browned texture.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the flour and crumbs so the batter clings to the meat slices.

The step that matters

Frying the battered slices in boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to set the batter quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisp and browned.

“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.

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