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Calves' Ears Stuffed

Calves' ears are stuffed with liver, bacon, ham, bread, herbs, egg, salt, mace, bread crumbs, then fried and served with gravy or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Calves' Ears Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ears

  1. Scald and clean the calves' ears, cutting them close to the head.

  2. Boil the ears until tender.

  3. Blanch the ears in cold water.

  4. Ensure the gristle next to the head is cut smooth for the ears to stand upright.

Stuff and coat

  1. Fill the cavity of the ears with a stuffing made from calf's liver, fat bacon, grated ham, soaked bread, herbs, egg, salt, and mace.

  2. Rub egg over the ears and stuffing.

  3. Dip the ears in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the ears until they are a beautiful light brown.

  2. Serve with brown or white gravy, or tomato sauce.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together731 recipes

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

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' ears
Form the main body of the dish and hold the stuffing in their cavity.
Calf's liver
Adds rich, savoury flavour and body to the stuffing.
Fat bacon
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and adding savoury flavour.
Bread soaked in cream or gravy
Adds moisture to the stuffing so it stays soft and binds the mixture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing and, rubbed on the surface, helps the crumbs stick and brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns when the ears are fried.

The step that matters

Fry the ears until light brown. Frying over heat that is too high browns the crumb coating before the stuffing heats through, while too low leaves it greasy and pale. Gentle, steady heat browns the crumbs evenly and sets the coating.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, bread, egg, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, bread, egg, tomato. 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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