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Calf's Head Hashed, or Ragout

A hash of boiled calf's head mixed with bread crumbs, herbs, and eggs, served with fried bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Calf's Head Hashed, or Ragout

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Boil the calf's head until tender, then remove from water.

Make the hash and cakes

  1. Cut half of the head into slices and place in a stew-pan with gravy.

  2. Mix bread crumbs, lemon peel, parsley, flour, eggs, thyme, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl.

  3. Form the mixture into small cakes and fry until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve the sliced head with the forcemeat cakes and garnish with fried bacon.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Forms the main body of the hash, providing the meat and savory base of the dish.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat mixture so the cakes hold together and set when fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat cakes body and a lighter texture.
Flour
Helps thicken and bind the forcemeat so the cakes keep their shape while frying.
Gravy
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the sliced head tender and saucy in the stew-pan.

The step that matters

Frying the forcemeat cakes until light brown. Frying over steady heat sets the egg and crumb mixture so the cakes hold their shape, and browning adds flavor. Too little heat leaves them soft and pale, while too much can burn the outside before the centre sets.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, lemon, parsley, flour, egg, thyme, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, lemon, parsley, flour, egg, thyme, pepper. 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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