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Calf's Brains a LA Maitre D' Hotel

A dish of boiled calf brains served with fried bread and Maitre d'Hotel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Remove all fibers and skins from the brains and soak them in several waters.

  2. Boil the brains in salted water with a piece of butter and a tablespoon of vinegar.

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut bread into shell shapes.

  2. Fry the bread in butter.

  3. Place the fried bread in a dish.

Assemble and serve

  1. Divide the brains in two.

  2. Place the brains on top of the bread.

  3. Pour Maitre d'Hotel sauce over the dish and serve hot.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + saucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together15,317 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together4,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together13,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Vinegar + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,672 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and sauce share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,317 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's brains
Forms the soft, delicate main body of the dish, which is the centerpiece.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the brains and browns the bread when fried.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the mild, rich flavor of the brains.
Slices of bread
Provides a crisp, golden base that holds the brains and soaks up the sauce.

The step that matters

Removing fibers and skins before boiling. Membranes and fibers left in the brains stay tough and chewy after cooking, and thorough soaking in several changes of water helps draw out blood and residue for a cleaner texture and flavor.

“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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