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A soup made by simmering veal, vegetables, and spices, then braising a calf's head in the stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a pot, combine veal, carrots, onion, celery, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Simmer until the meat falls from the bones, being careful not to reduce the stock too much.

  3. Remove the brains from the calf's head and bone it, returning the bones to the pot.

  4. Strain the soup through a fine sieve into a clean pan and let it cool.

  5. Skim off the fat once cooled.

Cook the head

  1. Roll the head with the tongue inside, secure it with twine, and pour the soup over it.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil, skimming regularly, and simmer for 1 to 1.25 hours.

  3. Transfer the head to a deep pan or tureen, add the soup, and let it cool to prevent dark edges.

Prepare the garnish

  1. Dice the ham and prepare the shallots.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Carrot + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together803 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or neck
Breaks down into gelatin-rich body, giving the stock its richness and body.
Calf's head
Supplies gelatin and meat that set and thicken the soup as it cools.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock as they simmer.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and depth to the stock.
Ham
Adds salty, savory meat flavor to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without reducing the stock too much. A hard boil or over-reduction makes the stock cloudy and overly concentrated, and can leave the meat tough. A gentle simmer extracts gelatin and flavor cleanly, so the stock sets well when cooled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, onion, celery, ham, shallot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, celery, ham, shallot. 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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