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Stewed Calf's Head Soup

A soup made from calf's head flesh and sweetbread, flavored with curry powder and thickened with flour or arrow-root.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Stewed Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine 3 pints of stock and bring to a simmer.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of curry powder and 2 tablespoons of thickening, stirring well.

  3. Cook the flesh of the calf's head and sweetbread for 15 minutes or more.

Finish and season

  1. In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of thick cream with 1 teaspoon of flour or arrow-root.

  2. Stir this mixture into the soup and cook for 2 minutes.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of chili vinegar or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to taste.

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. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  2. Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Thick cream with flour or arrow-root
Thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Curry powder
Provides the main spiced flavour of the soup.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced broth.
Calf's head flesh and sweetbread
Supplies the meat that gives the soup its substance and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the cream and flour or arrow-root mixture. Flour or arrow-root must be mixed with the cream before it goes into the hot soup, otherwise it clumps. Starches thicken when heated, so the soup needs a brief simmer after adding them to cook out raw flour taste and reach full thickness.

“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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