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Calf's Head Cheese

A cold cut made by simmering a calf's head, mixing the meat with herbs and salt, forming it in cheesecloth, and slicing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 125 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Calf's Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head as directed in Dressed Calf's Head.

  2. Simmer it in enough hot water to cover for 1.5 hours, or until the meat leaves the bones.

  3. Carefully remove the head.

  4. Take out the bones.

  5. Chop the meat.

Shape and set

  1. Add the other ingredients to the chopped meat.

  2. Prepare a small cheesecloth bag.

  3. Pack the mixture into the bag.

  4. Tie the bag tightly.

  5. Hang the bag to cool.

  6. Once cold, turn the bag inside out.

  7. Remove the meat from the bag.

Serve

  1. Serve cold.

  2. Cut into thin slices.

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. Marjoram + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Summer savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 and gelatin-rich connective tissue that binds the chopped meat once cooled.
Sweet marjoram
Adds a warm, herbal aroma that flavours the meat.
Summer savory
Adds a peppery, herbal aroma that complements the meat.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out flavour from the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Simmering until the meat leaves the bones. Undercooking leaves the meat stuck to the bones and the connective tissue unsoftened, while overcooking can make the meat fall apart. Gelatin released during slow simmering is what lets the cooled mixture hold its shape when sliced.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (marjoram, parsley, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against marjoram, parsley, 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.

More head cheese recipes

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