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Calf's Head Cheese

A preserved meat made from boiled calf's head, seasoned, and pressed into a loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the head

  1. Boil the calf's head in enough water to cover it until the meat separates from the bones.

  2. Remove the head with a skimmer.

  3. Place the head in a wooden bowl or tray.

  4. Remove all bones.

Press and set

  1. Chop the meat finely.

  2. Season the meat with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs if desired.

  3. Place a cloth in a colander and add the minced meat to the cloth.

  4. Fold the cloth over the meat, place a plate on top, and add a gentle weight.

  5. Once cooled, slice thinly for supper or sandwiches.

  6. Serve with made mustard.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides the meat that is cooked, chopped and pressed into the set loaf.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out flavour in the finished set cold meat.

The step that matters

Pressing the minced meat under a gentle weight. Pressing packs the chopped meat together so it holds its shape when cooled and sliced. Too little weight can leave the head cheese crumbly, while the meat must be cooled fully before slicing.

“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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