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Calf's Tail

Calf's tails cut in two and boiled with cabbage, bacon, parsley and broth, then served on a dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Pierre Blot · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Calf's Tail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut each tail in two.

  2. Throw the tail pieces in boiling water for three minutes.

  3. Drain the tails.

  4. Cut a cabbage in two.

  5. Trim off the stump.

  6. Throw the two cabbage halves in boiling water with a little salt for fifteen minutes.

  7. Drain the cabbage.

Cook

  1. Put the tails, cabbage, six ounces of lean bacon, two sprigs of parsley chopped fine, the same quantity of green onions, two cloves, a little piece of nutmeg, a clove of garlic, salt, and pepper in a tureen.

  2. Cover the whole with half broth and half water.

  3. Boil gently till cooked.

Serve

  1. Take off the cloves, nutmeg, and garlic.

  2. Turn the remainder on a dish.

  3. Serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

210Calories
5 gProtein
15 gFat
14 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Pierre Blot. 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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  4. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Tails
Slow simmering breaks down their connective tissue, giving the dish body and a rich texture.
Cabbage (in the method)
Adds bulk and a mild, sweet vegetable flavour that soaks up the cooking liquid.
Lean bacon
Releases savoury, smoky flavour and a little fat into the cooking liquid.
Broth
Forms the moist, savoury cooking liquid that flavours the tails and cabbage.

The step that matters

Boil gently till cooked. A gentle simmer lets the connective tissue in the tails slowly soften into gelatin. A hard boil toughens the meat and breaks up the cabbage.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, butter, garlic, vinegar, shallot, pepper, corn):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, butter, garlic, vinegar, shallot, pepper, corn. 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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