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Calf's Head Hashed

A stew of calf head and feet with herbs, onion, and gravy, served with fried brain balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Calf's Head Hashed

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Calf's Head Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Boil and prepare the head

  1. Boil the calf's head and feet until tender.

  2. Remove the brains first.

  3. Cut the flesh off the head and feet into slices.

Make the gravy

  1. Place the sliced flesh in a stew pan with herbs, onion, salt, pepper, butter, and water.

  2. Stew slowly until the flavors are extracted.

  3. Remove the meat and season with cayenne pepper.

  4. Strain the gravy.

  5. Stir in Madeira wine, lemon juice, and grated peel.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour some gravy over the meat.

  2. Place a piece of butter on top.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

  4. Serve the meat with the tongue on top.

  5. Garnish with lemon slices.

  6. Warm the remaining gravy with a beaten egg yolk stirred in before serving.

Make the brain balls

  1. Clean and wash the brains.

  2. Parboil the brains.

  3. Mix the brains with herbs, bread crumbs, lemon peel, nutmeg, and beaten egg yolk to form balls.

  4. Fry the balls in a mixture of lard and butter.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is stewed and baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the meat brown in the oven and enriching the gravy.
Egg yolk
Binds the brain mixture so it holds together when shaped into balls and fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and gives the brain balls a firmer, lighter texture.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and sweetness to the gravy as it is stirred in.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances its fattiness.

The step that matters

Parboil the brains before forming the balls. Brains are very delicate and soft; parboiling firms their texture so they can be shaped into balls and hold together during frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, flour, madeira wine, lemon, bread, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, flour, madeira wine, lemon, bread, nutmeg. 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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