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Hashed Calf's Head

A hash of calf's head flesh served with forcemeat balls, eggs, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Hashed Calf's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare 1 quart of stock.

  2. Parboil the calf's head, then cut 1½ pounds into small, thick slices.

  3. Make the brains into cakes.

Garnish and fry

  1. Garnish the dish with forcemeat balls rolled in egg and fine bread crumbs, then fry until golden brown.

  2. Drain and dry the balls on a warm sieve.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Wine + breadtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together956 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Wine + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head flesh
Forms the main meat of the dish, providing bulk and chewy texture once parboiled and sliced.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat balls and help the bread crumb coating adhere before frying.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns when the forcemeat balls are fried.

The step that matters

Frying the forcemeat balls. The balls must be fried until golden brown and then drained and dried well. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction at the surface, and excess moisture left on the balls would make the crumb coating soggy and cause oil to splatter.

“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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