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Soup

Calf's Head Soup

A soup made from boiled calf's head, beef, onions, carrot, herbs, and seasoned with butter, flour, Worcestershire sauce, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the head

  1. Boil the calf's head until the flesh slips from the bones.

  2. Salt and pepper the meat.

  3. Set aside with the cooked brains in a cool place.

Make the stock

  1. Return the bones to the boiling liquor with the diced beef, fried onions, and chopped vegetables and herbs.

  2. Boil for one hour.

  3. Season.

  4. Cool in a cellar until the next day.

  5. Remove the fat.

  6. Melt the soup jelly by heating it in a soup kettle.

  7. Strain the soup.

  8. Reserve half the stock for later.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the stock for today.

  2. Stir in the butter and flour.

  3. Add diced meat from the cold head.

  4. Simmer for ten minutes.

  5. Add Worcestershire sauce and sherry before serving.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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 gelatinous flesh and bones that give the soup its body and jelly.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, roasted flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Brown sherry
Adds acidity and a deep, sweet-nutty aroma at the end.
Lean beef
Adds meaty flavour and savoury depth to the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they caramelise when fried.

The step that matters

Remove the fat from the chilled stock. Overnight cooling lets fat rise and set on top. Leaving it in leaves the soup greasy, and skimming it cleanly while the stock is cold gives a clear, well-flavoured broth.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, butter, flour, sauce, sherry, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, flour, sauce, sherry, pepper. 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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