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How to Hash a Calf’s Head

A hash made from boiled calf's head, fried in brown butter and served with a savory broth and assorted garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

How to Hash a Calf’s Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Cut the boiled calf's head into thin slices.

  2. Fry the slices in a pan with brown butter until golden.

Make the hash

  1. In a saucepan, combine gravy, strong broth, claret, white wine, savory balls, palates, oysters, cockscombs, sweetbreads, and mushrooms.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove until warmed through.

Serve

  1. Place the hash in a serving dish and arrange the other ingredients on top.

  2. Garnish with sliced lemon before serving.

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. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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 meat base, cut into slices and fried for a golden surface.
Brown butter
Adds fat and nutty flavour while browning the meat slices.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and body to the hash as it heats together.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and tender texture when warmed through.
Sweetbreads
Contribute a soft, creamy texture that contrasts with the sliced meat.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture until warmed through. Oysters cook quickly and turn firm and rubbery if overheated, so the mixture should be heated gently just until warm.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, white wine, oyster, mushroom):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Grapefits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, white wine, oyster, mushroom. 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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