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A hearty soup made with veal, calf's head, ham, and vegetables, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, combine veal, carrots, onion, celery, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt. Cover with water and simmer until meat is tender.

  2. Strain the broth and pour it over the veal in a clean pot. Simmer gently until the meat falls from the bones.

Prepare and cook the head

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the calf's head, keeping the tongue inside. Secure the head with tape or twine.

  2. Add the head to the pot with the broth and bring to a gentle boil. Skim off any fat and simmer for 1 to 1.25 hours.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, place the head in a deep pan or tureen and pour the soup over it. Let it cool to prevent dark edges.

  2. Dice the ham, removing all fat and rind. Peel and slice the shallots.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Carrot + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together803 recipes

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

  5. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or neck
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin and flavour into the broth, giving body to the soup.
Calf's head
Its skin and gelatinous tissue melt during long simmering, thickening the soup and giving it richness.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the soup as a seasoning meat.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat during simmering. Fat that is not removed during simmering floats on the broth and makes the soup greasy and cloudy. Skimming keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, onion, celery, ham, shallot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, celery, ham, shallot. 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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