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Plain Calf's Head Soup

A soup made from calf's head, seasoned with onion, herbs, and spices, finished with lemon juice and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Wash the calf's head in three waters.

  2. Soak the head in salted water for 1 hour.

  3. Boil the head in 5 quarts of cold water until the meat slips easily from the bones.

  4. Remove the head.

  5. Discard the bones.

  6. Return the meat to the soup.

  7. Reserve three-quarters of the best meat for tomorrow's dinner.

Make the forcemeat balls

  1. Chop the ears and other parts finely.

  2. Season the chopped parts with salt, pepper, onion, marjoram, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Mix the seasoned parts well.

  4. Return them to the soup and boil until the volume reduces to 3 quarts.

  5. Mash the brains.

  6. Mix the mashed brains with raw egg, seasoning, and enough flour to form balls.

  7. Roll the mixture into balls and set aside.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Mix the melted butter with 2 tablespoons of browned flour and cold water.

  3. Stir the mixture for 5 minutes.

  4. Strain the soup.

  5. Return 2 quarts of the strained soup to the heat.

  6. Stir in the flour and butter mixture.

  7. Boil the soup.

  8. Add the forcemeat balls.

  9. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  10. Add the juice of a lemon and the brown sherry.

  11. Serve.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Marjoram + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, skin and gelatin that give the soup its body and richness.
Raw egg
Binds the mashed brains so the forcemeat balls hold their shape while simmering.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty depth of flavour.
Butter
Enriches the thickening roux and adds richness to the soup.
Brown sherry
Adds sweetness and a rounded, mellow aroma at the finish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy broth.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and browned flour mixture into the soup. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; mixing it first with cold water and butter makes a smooth slurry that thickens the soup evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, marjoram, clove, allspice, butter, flour, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, marjoram, clove, allspice, butter, flour, lemon. 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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