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To Fry Calfs Brains

Fried calf brains soaked in broth, wine, and spices, then battered and fried, served with melted butter and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

To Fry Calfs Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the brains into four pieces.

  2. Soak the pieces in broth, white wine, lemon slices, pepper, salt, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, parsley, and shallots for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the brains from the soaking liquid.

Fry and serve

  1. Soak the brains in batter made from white wine, a little oil, and salt.

  2. Fry the brains until golden brown.

  3. Optionally sprinkle the brains with bread crumbs mixed with egg yolks before serving.

  4. Serve the brains with plain melted butter and garnish with parsley.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's brains
Provides the soft, delicate main substance that the coating and frying surround.
Batter
Forms a crisp coating that turns golden when fried and protects the tender interior.
Egg yolks
Mixed with bread crumbs to add richness and help the topping brown.
Plain melted butter
Adds fat and richness to finish the fried brains when served.

The step that matters

Fry the brains until golden brown. Brains are delicate and can fall apart or turn greasy if the oil is not hot enough or they are overcrowded. Hot oil sets the batter quickly, creating a crisp crust and limiting oil absorption.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, lemon, pepper, thyme, parsley, shallot, bread. 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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