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Plain Boiled Calfs Head, French Fashion

A boiled calf's head seasoned with herbs, served with onion, parsley, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Plain Boiled Calfs Head, French Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lightly flour the head before boiling.

Cook

  1. Boil the calf's head in 1 quart of water seasoned with salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, parsley, and the whole onion.

  2. Be careful with the brains and tongue.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, serve on a hot dish.

  2. In a separate dish, serve chopped onion and parsley.

  3. Each person can add oil and vinegar to taste when served.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is cooked through by boiling.
Flour
Lightly coats the surface of the head, helping it hold together during boiling.
Olive oil
Adds richness and a smooth fat to the meat when served at the table.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat at the table.

The step that matters

Boiling the calf's head. Boiling must be gentle and sustained so the dense connective tissue softens and the meat becomes tender rather than tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, marjoram, thyme, parsley, flour, olive, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, marjoram, thyme, parsley, flour, olive, vinegar. 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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