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Veal Pluck

A dish made from veal head organs, including lungs, heart, liver, and brains, mixed with spices, flour, and ketchup, then fried or simmered.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Pluck

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hash

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over a clear fire to brown lightly.

  2. Mince the lungs, heart, and part of the liver with onion, parsley, pepper, salt, flour, nutmeg, and ketchup.

  3. Mix well and add some liquor from boiling the head to form a gravy; let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Fry the brain cakes and liver

  1. Beat the brains with eggs, flour, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and milk to form a batter.

  2. Heat lard or dripping in a frying pan and fry the batter in small round cakes, turning to brown both sides.

  3. Dust the remaining liver slices with flour and fry them.

Serve

  1. Place the veal head on a dish, surround it with the hash, and arrange liver slices and brain cakes alternately on the hash.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Browns lightly first, adding a nutty aroma and rich flavor to the base.
Lungs, heart, and part of the liver
Form the minced body of the hash, giving it its main meaty texture.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps the batter and liver slices brown and hold together.
Eggs
Bind the brain batter so it holds its shape in the frying pan.
Brains
Provide a soft, creamy interior to the fried cakes.
Milk
Loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Frying the brain cakes. The batter is loose and delicate, so it must be fried in small cakes over steady heat and turned only once the underside is set. Turning too early tears the cakes, and too-high heat browns the outside before the centre cooks through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, liver, veal, parsley, pepper, flour, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, liver, veal, parsley, pepper, flour, nutmeg. 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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