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Burlington Whimsey

A chilled aspic made from calf's head, ham, herbs, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Burlington Whimsey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove tough gelatinous parts from the calf's head and mince them.

  2. Combine the minced parts with 1 pint of gravy and simmer gently for 10–15 minutes.

  3. Mince enough of the calf's head to make 1 lb after trimming.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the minced calf's head with chopped ham, lemon rind, parsley, thyme, mace, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Stir the mixture well, add ½ pint of additional gravy, and simmer the mixture for 4–5 minutes.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into molds lined with slices of tongue.

  2. Let it cool completely before unmolding.

  3. Garnish with dry parsley before serving.

  4. Serve with salad sauce if desired.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head meat
Provides the main body of the dish and, with its natural gelatin, helps the aspic set.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and savory flavor, and its gelatin helps the mixture firm up as it cools.
Lean boiled ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a firmer meaty texture to the filling.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aroma and a touch of acidity that balances the rich meat.

The step that matters

Let it cool completely before unmolding. The gelatin must fully set as the mixture cools. Unmolding too early can cause the aspic to break or slump, since it has not yet firmed into a stable gel.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, lemon, parsley, thyme, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, lemon, parsley, thyme, nutmeg. 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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