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Hashing and Mincing

A hearty hash made from calf's head, brains, and various seasonings, served with mushrooms, forcemeat balls, and brain cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hashing and Mincing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Wash the calf's head thoroughly.

  2. Boil the calf's head for 15 minutes.

  3. Once cooled, cut the meat and tongue into thin slices.

Make the hash

  1. Place the slices in a stewing pan with 1 quart of gravy and stew for 45 minutes.

  2. Add the anchovy, beaten mace, cayenne pepper, lemon pickle, walnut ketchup, truffles, morels, lemon slices, sweet herbs, and white wine.

  3. Mix 1/4 pound of butter with some flour.

  4. Add the butter and flour mixture a few minutes before the meat is done.

Make the brain cakes

  1. Place the brains in hot water.

  2. Beat the brains finely in a bowl.

  3. Add 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon of flour, shredded lemon peel, parsley, thyme, and sage to the brains and mix well.

  4. Season the brain mixture with pepper and salt.

  5. Drop the seasoned mixture into boiling lard and fry until light brown.

  6. Drain the brain cakes on a sieve.

Serve

  1. Transfer the hash to a serving dish.

  2. Strain the gravy over the hash.

  3. Top the hash with mushrooms, forcemeat balls, hard-boiled egg yolks, and brain cakes.

  4. Garnish with sliced lemon and pickles.

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. Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 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
Provides the meat and tongue that form the body of the hash.
Eggs
Bind the brain mixture so the cakes hold together when fried.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and, with flour, thickens it as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the butter and gravy and helps bind the brain cakes.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid in which the meat stews and turns tender and moist.
Walnut ketchup
Adds savoury depth and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the brain cakes in boiling lard. The mixture must be fully bound and the lard hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If the fat is too cool, the cakes absorb grease and fall apart before they set.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anchovy, pepper, lemon, walnut, ketchup, truffle, white wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, pepper, lemon, walnut, ketchup, truffle, white wine. 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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