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Calf’s Head, Hashed

A hash made from boiled calf’s head meat, herbs, and spices, finished with sherry, lemon, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Calf’s Head, Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gravy

  1. Cut the meat into neat slices.

  2. Put the bones and trimmings into a stewpan with the liquor from boiling the head.

  3. Add the herbs, onion, carrot, lemon peel, and mace; boil for 1 hour until the gravy reduces by half.

  4. Strain the mixture into a clean stewpan and thicken with butter and flour.

Finish and serve

  1. Add sherry, lemon juice, and ketchup; season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Add the meat and warm through for 2-3 minutes without boiling.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  3. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

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

  4. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Carrot + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,796 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head meat
Forms the body of the hash, providing the main texture and savoury flavour.
Liquor from boiling the head
Supplies the gelatine and flavour that make the gravy rich and body-forming once reduced.
Butter and flour (in the method)
Thicken the strained gravy into a smooth, coating sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a warm, aromatic depth to the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances its savouriness.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Add the meat and warm through without boiling. Boiling toughens and dries the meat's proteins and can make the thickened gravy separate or break, so the slices should only be gently heated in the finished sauce.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, lemon, mace, sherry, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, lemon, mace, sherry, mushroom, ketchup. 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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