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Calfs Head

A boiled calf's head served with a butter‑flour sauce and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 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 ↓

Calfs Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Boil the calf's head in water for 5 minutes to remove hair.

  2. Scrape off the hair from the head.

  3. Soak the cleaned head in cold water for 24 hours in winter or 10 hours in summer, changing the water 2–3 times.

  4. Place the head in a saucepan covered with cold water and add salt, onion, lemon, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, garlic, peppercorns, and vinegar.

  5. Boil gently until cooked through.

  6. If boned, remove the brain and soak it in cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan and add flour to it.

  2. Stir until the mixture turns yellow.

  3. Gradually add broth, stirring until thickened.

  4. Add the diced calf's head to the sauce.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  6. Remove the sauce from heat.

  7. Stir in egg yolk and chopped parsley.

  8. Bring the sauce to a second boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the dish.

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

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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, which becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Butter
Carries the flour and gives the sauce its rich flavour and smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the butter and broth into a sauce as its starch swells with heat.
Broth
Forms the liquid of the sauce, adding savoury flavour as it thickens.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, adding richness and body when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat; if the sauce is too hot or boils after it is added, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy, so the sauce must be removed from heat first.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, lemon, parsley, thyme, garlic, vinegar, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, lemon, parsley, thyme, garlic, vinegar, butter. 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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