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Calf's Head Hash

A stew of calf head meat, stock, spices, and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Calf's Head Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Boil the calf's head.

  2. Cut the meat into small square pieces.

  3. Break up the bones and add them to the veal stock.

  4. Stew over low heat until reduced to a jelly when cool.

  5. Remove the fat from the jelly and place it in a stew pan.

Make the hash

  1. Add Cayenne pepper, salt, mushroom ketchup, Chili vinegar, and Madeira or sherry.

  2. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the head, forcemeat quenelles, egg yolks, and lemon rind.

  4. Stew for another 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with sauce, garnished with pickled gherkins and fried sippets.

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

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

  2. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (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 gelatinous body that give the hash its substance and texture.
Veal stock
Its gelatin sets into a jelly when reduced and cooled, giving the hash body and moisture.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and wine flavour that balances the rich meat and stock.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Their fat and richness add smoothness and body to the sauce.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes savoury, umami depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Stew the stock down to a jelly. The stock must reduce until it sets firm when cool, because that gelatin is what binds the hash. If it is under-reduced, the hash will be thin and runny; slow, low heat avoids scorching.

“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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