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Cervelles De Veau a LA Maitre D'hotel

A French dish of veal brains stewed with bacon, herbs, and broth, served with bread and maître d'Hôtel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,933 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the brains in cold water to remove blood.

  2. Remove the skin and blanch the brains in boiling water with salt and vinegar for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain the brains on a sieve.

Braise

  1. Prepare a stewpan with vegetable spice and sweet herbs, layering slices of bacon and the brains.

  2. Pour in broth and cover with paper, cooking over low heat for 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry pieces of bread cut in the shape of a cock's comb.

  2. Place a piece of bread between each half of the brains and serve with maître d'Hôtel sauce.

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.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together4,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Vinegar + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,672 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's brains
Forms the soft, creamy main part of the dish, which stays tender with gentle cooking.
Fat bacon
Releases fat and savoury flavour into the stewpan as the brains cook.
Broth
Adds moisture so the brains braise gently instead of drying out.
Maître d'hôtel sauce
Adds richness and herb aroma to the brains at serving.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat, covered. Gentle, covered cooking at low heat keeps the delicate brains tender and moist. Higher heat can toughen the proteins and dry the surface, so the brains should only simmer gently in the broth.

“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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