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Coif's Head, to Hash. No. 1.

A hash made from boiled calf's head, herbs, wine, and fried brains, served with bacon or ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 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 ↓

Coif's Head, to Hash. No. 1.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Wash the calf's head clean and boil it until tender.

  2. Cut the meat off one half of the head into small slices.

  3. Score the other half of the head in a diamond pattern.

Make the hash

  1. In a stewpan, heat butter and sauté parsley, thyme, and a little onion until tender.

  2. Add flour, pepper, salt, and broth.

  3. Let the mixture boil and skim.

  4. Add the meat, lemon juice, and white wine.

  5. Boil together for about 10 minutes.

Brown the head and fry the brains

  1. Rub the scored head with oiled butter and egg yolk.

  2. Mix chopped parsley, thyme, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and bread crumbs.

  3. Cover the head with this mixture.

  4. Broil the head until light brown.

  5. Scald the brains.

  6. Cut the brains into four pieces.

  7. Rub the pieces with egg yolk.

  8. Crumb the pieces.

  9. Fry the pieces until light brown.

  10. Arrange the brains around the dish with fried bacon or ham slices.

  11. Place the broiled head on the hash when 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through boiling and is then sliced into the hash.
Egg yolks
Enrich the hash and, brushed on the head and brains, help the crumb coating adhere and brown.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce that binds the hash together.
Butter
Adds richness and helps sauté the herbs and onion, and aids browning of the crust.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the broiled head and the fried brains.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich meat and sauce.

The step that matters

Broiling the head until light brown. The head is already cooked, so the broiler only needs to brown the crumb crust. Too little heat leaves it pale, while too much dries the crumbs and scorches them before the surface is evenly golden.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, egg, parsley, thyme, butter, flour):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, egg, parsley, thyme, butter, flour. 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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