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Calf's Head Fricasseed

A stew of calf's head, gravy, herbs, onion, mace, and cream, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Calf's Head Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean and half-boil the calf's head.

  2. Cut the meat into small bits.

Make the fricassee

  1. In a pot, combine the meat, gravy, boiling water, sweet herbs, onion, and mace.

  2. If available, add tender boiled and blanched cockscombs or sweetbread.

  3. Season the gravy with pepper, nutmeg, and salt.

  4. Mix flour and butter to thicken the gravy, then boil together.

  5. Remove the herbs and onion, then stir in the cream without boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve with small bits of bacon and meatballs.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, cohesive sauce when boiled with butter.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished gravy.
Calf's head
Provides the main meat, whose gelatin enriches the body of the gravy.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream without boiling. Cream can curdle or separate when boiled, so it should be stirred in off the heat or at a gentle simmer to keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, nutmeg, flour, butter, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, nutmeg, flour, butter, cream. 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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