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Calf's Head Hash

A hash made from calf's head, eggs, bread, herbs, and gravy, served with bacon and bread snippets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Calf's Head Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

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

  2. Remove the bones from half of the head and set aside.

  3. Beat the egg and brush it over the head.

  4. Sprinkle the head with grated bread, lemon peel, thyme, and parsley.

  5. Add breadcrumbs and place in a Dutch oven to brown.

Make the hash

  1. Cut the other half of the head into dice and place in a saucepan.

  2. Add gravy, forcemeat balls, white wine, and ketchup; warm together.

  3. Skim off any fat and peel the tongue.

Make the brain cakes and serve

  1. Mix brains with flour, eggs, lemon peel, thyme, parsley, and seasonings.

  2. Form into small cakes and fry until light brown.

  3. Serve the tongue with the brains arranged around it.

  4. Dish the hash with the browned head in the center and garnish with bacon and bread snippets.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,503 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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 meat of the hash, providing body and rich flavor.
Egg
Binds the coating and helps it set and brown on the head.
Grated bread
Forms a crumb crust that crisps and browns in the oven.
Gravy or turtle sauce
Supplies moisture and savory flavor that coats the diced meat.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the breadcrumb coating. The egg and crumbs must be fully set and lightly browned before the head is dished. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and soft, while overbaking dries the crust and makes it bitter.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, lemon, parsley, sauce, white wine, ketchup):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, lemon, parsley, sauce, white wine, ketchup. 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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