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Calf’s Head Fricasseed

A fricassee made from half‑boiled calf's head, gravy, herbs, and cream, finished with bacon.

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

  1. Cut the half-boiled calf's head into small bits.

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

  3. If using, add boiled and blanched cockscombs or sweetbread.

Make the fricassee

  1. Season the mixture with pepper, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Mix flour and butter to form a paste.

  3. Add the paste to the pot and bring to a boil.

  4. Remove the herbs and onion.

  5. Stir in the cream without boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished 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

Calf's head
Provides the meat and gelatinous body that gives the fricassee its substance.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the finished sauce.
Gravy
Supplies savoury meaty flavour and liquid for the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream without boiling. Cream can curdle or separate when boiled for long, so it should be added off the heat or at a gentle warm temperature 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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