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Calves' Ears Stuffed

Calves' ears stuffed with liver, bacon, ham, bread, herbs, and spices, then fried and served with gravy or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Calves' Ears Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ears

  1. Scald and clean the calves' ears, cutting them close to the head.

  2. Boil the ears until tender, then blanch them in cold water.

  3. Ensure the gristle next to the head is cut smooth for the ears to stand upright.

Stuff and fry

  1. Prepare a stuffing with calf's liver, fat bacon, grated ham, soaked bread, herbs, egg, salt, and mace.

  2. Fill the ears with the stuffing, rub egg over them, and dip in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the ears until they are a beautiful light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with brown or white gravy, or tomato sauce.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 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

Calves' ears
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender after boiling and holding the stuffing.
Calf's liver
Adds richness and a firm, savoury body to the stuffing.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and carries savoury flavour.
Bread
Soaked in cream or gravy, it gives the stuffing moisture and a softer texture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing and, rubbed on the outside, helps bread crumbs stick and brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns in the frying pan.

The step that matters

Frying to a light brown. Frying gives the crumb coating its colour and crispness through browning. Too little heat leaves it pale and greasy, while too much can scorch the crumbs before the filling is hot through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, bread, egg, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, bread, egg, tomato. 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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