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Burlington Whimsey

A gelatinous dish made from calf head, gravy, ham, lemon rind, herbs, and spices, set in a mold and chilled.

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 head

  1. Set aside half a dressed calf's head until cold.

  2. Trim the gelatinous part if it is not tender.

  3. Mince the trimmed gelatinous part.

  4. Mince enough of the head to make 1 lb after trimming.

Make the filling

  1. Stew the minced gelatinous part in 1 pint of gravy for 10-15 minutes.

  2. Add 3 oz of finely chopped boiled ham, lemon rind, parsley, thyme, mace, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne to the minced head. Stir well.

  3. Add ½ pint more gravy.

  4. Simmer the mixture for 4-5 minutes.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds or pans lined with slices of tongue.

  2. Let it cool until firm.

  3. Garnish with dry parsley before serving.

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
Provides gelatine-rich meat and connective tissue that set the aspic as it cools.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid base that carries flavour and, when cooled, forms the jelly.
Boiled ham
Adds savoury, salty meatiness that contrasts with the mild calf's head.
Lemon rind
Adds aromatic oils that brighten the rich, gelatinous filling.

The step that matters

Stew the gelatinous part in gravy. Gentle stewing extracts collagen from connective tissue into the liquid, which later sets as gelatine. Too little time or heat leaves the aspic weak and unable to firm up when cooled.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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