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Hash of a Head

A savory hash made from boiled head meat, brains, eggs, and various seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 26 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 ↓

Hash of a Head

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Wash the head thoroughly.

  2. Boil the head for 15 minutes.

  3. Slice the meat and tongue into thin pieces.

  4. Combine the meat with gravy.

  5. Simmer for 45 minutes.

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

  7. Mix butter with flour.

  8. Add the butter-flour mixture a few minutes before the meat is done.

Make the brain cakes

  1. Soak the brains in hot water.

  2. Beat the brains finely in a bowl.

  3. Add eggs, flour, lemon peel, parsley, thyme and sage to the brains.

  4. Mix the brain mixture well.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

  6. Drop small cakes into boiling lard.

  7. Fry until light brown.

Serve

  1. Remove the hash from the pan.

  2. Place the hash on a dish.

  3. Strain the gravy over the hash.

  4. Top with mushrooms, forcemeat balls, boiled egg yolks and brain cakes.

  5. 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. Meat + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together335 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  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

Meat
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender through long simmering.
Gravy
Keeps the meat moist and carries the savoury flavour through the dish.
Brains
Mashed and fried into cakes, giving the dish a soft, rich texture.
Eggs
Bind the brain mixture so the cakes hold together while frying.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps bind the brain cakes.
Butter
Enriches the gravy, adding richness and silkiness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the brain cakes in boiling lard. The lard must be fully hot when the cakes are dropped in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly so the cakes hold their shape and browns evenly. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes can break apart and absorb grease, becoming heavy.

Swap the mace

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

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

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