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To Hash a Calf's Head

A stew made from calf's head, cooked with gravy, wine, anchovies, spices, and optional sweetbreads or forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Hash a Calf's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Boil the head until the meat is almost enough for eating.

  2. Cut the head into thin slices.

Make the sauce

  1. Take three quarters of a pint of good gravy.

  2. Add half a pint of white wine, half a nutmeg, two anchovies, a small onion stuck with cloves, and a little mace to the gravy.

  3. Boil these up in the liquor for a quarter of an hour.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Boil it up again.

Finish and garnish

  1. Put in the meat, with salt to taste, and let it stew a little.

  2. Optionally add some sweetbreads.

  3. Make some forcemeat balls with veal.

  4. Mix the brains with the yolks of eggs and fry them to lay for a garish.

  5. When the head is ready to be sent in, stir in a bit of butter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

44Calories
0 gProtein
1 gFat
3 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
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. 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. White wine + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,715 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. White wine + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,329 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head meat (in the method)
Forms the body of the hash, becoming tender as it is boiled and then stewed in the sauce.
Gravy
Provides the liquid base of the sauce, carrying savoury flavour through the dish.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and helps balance its flavour.
Anchovies
Contribute deep savoury flavour that rounds out the sauce without tasting strongly of fish.
Eggs (in the method)
Egg yolks in the brain mixture help bind and set it when fried.

The step that matters

Boil the head until almost enough. The meat is cooked again later in the sauce, so stopping short of fully tender keeps it from becoming dry and stringy during the final stew.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, nutmeg, clove. 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.

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