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Hashing

A savory hash made from calf's head, gravy, anchovy, spices, and various garnishes.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Wash the calf's head thoroughly and boil it for 15 minutes.

  2. Once cooled, cut the meat and tongue into thin slices and place them in a stewing pan with the gravy.

  3. Stew for 45 minutes, then add the anchovy, mace, cayenne pepper, lemon pickle, walnut ketchup, truffles, morels, lemon slices, sweet herbs, and white wine.

  4. Mix the butter with some flour and add it to the stew a few minutes before it's done.

Make the brain cakes

  1. Soak the brains in hot water, then beat them in a bowl.

  2. Add the eggs, flour, lemon peel, parsley, thyme, sage, and season with pepper and salt; mix well.

  3. Drop small cakes of the mixture into boiling lard and fry until light brown, then drain on a sieve.

Serve

  1. Remove the hash from the pan with a fish slice and place it on a dish.

  2. Strain the gravy over the hash and top with mushrooms, forcemeat balls, hard-boiled egg yolks, and brain cakes.

  3. 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 main meat, which becomes tender through boiling and slow stewing.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and, with flour, thickens it to a smooth, rich body.
Eggs
Bind the brain mixture so the cakes hold together during frying.
Brains
Form the base of the cakes, giving them a soft, creamy interior.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy.
Truffles and morels
Add earthy, aromatic depth to the stew.

The step that matters

Frying the brain cakes. The lard must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb grease and can 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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