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A soup made from a calf's head, stock, vegetables, and rice flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 stock

  1. Combine 5 quarts of water, 1 ounce coarse sea salt, 1 large bunch savory herbs, 1 large onion chopped, 1 head celery chopped, 3 carrots chopped, 2 turnips chopped, 2 small blades of mace, 8-10 whole cloves, a few black or white peppercorns in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer gently for 6–7 hours until reduced by half.

  3. Strain the broth into a clean pan and set aside.

Cook the head

  1. Remove the bone from the calf's head, wash it, roll it up, and tie it with twine; place it in a stewpot with the bones and tongue.

  2. Cover with 5 pints beef stock and simmer for 1.5 hours; let it cool in the liquid to prevent drying.

  3. Before it cools completely, remove the head from the pot and strain the stock, skimming off the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Heat 5 pints of the strained stock in a large saucepan; cut the head into small slices or inch squares and add to the soup.

  2. Add the skin and tongue to the soup; if the skin is not tender, simmer until it is.

  3. Mix 6–8 ounces rice flour with ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon freshly pounded mace, and enough cold broth or water to achieve a batter-like consistency; stir into the soup and boil.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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, gelatin and body of the soup as it simmers.
Beef stock
Supplies the savory liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
Rice flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, slightly body-rich consistency when stirred in and boiled.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the finished soup.
Onion
Builds aromatic sweetness and depth in the initial broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the rice flour batter. Rice flour must be mixed smoothly with cold liquid before it goes into the hot soup, then boiled. Adding it dry or lumpy causes clumps and an uneven, floury thickening.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, carrot, turnip, clove, beef, rice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, carrot, turnip, clove, beef, rice. 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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