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Calf's-head Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, veal, beans, and meatballs, seasoned with herbs and served with lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 125 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Calf's-head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and soup

  1. Soak the calf's head in water overnight with a cooking spoonful of coarse sea salt.

  2. Remove the brains and soak them in salted water, changing the water until the blood is drawn out.

  3. The next morning, place the calf's head and veal in 3 gallons of water and boil for 6-7 hours until tender.

  4. Remove the head from the water and take out the bone.

  5. Cut the meat into small pieces and return the meat to the soup.

  6. Season the soup with black pepper, salt, sweet marjoram, and summer savory to taste.

  7. Soak the turtle beans overnight, boil them until thoroughly cooked, pass them through a sieve, and add them to the soup.

Make the balls

  1. Make egg balls by mixing the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 raw egg, and enough flour to form a dough.

  2. Roll the dough into hazelnut-sized balls.

  3. Chop the cooked fillet of veal very fine.

  4. Season the chopped veal with salt, pepper, sweet marjoram, and the chopped onion.

  5. Add ½ cup of bread crumbs and 1 egg to the veal mixture, mix well, and form into small balls with a little flour.

  6. Fry the balls in boiling lard until cinnamon brown.

  7. Mash the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs and mix with the brains boiled until tender.

Store and serve

  1. Store the soup in the ice chest and fry the balls as desired each day.

  2. When serving, place slices of lemon in the tureen, pour the soup over them, and add the meatballs, egg balls, and wine to taste.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Beans + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Summer savory + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 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

Eggs
Bind the egg balls and hold the dough together as it is shaped and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture in the veal mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Turtle beans
Thicken the soup when passed through a sieve, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Fillet of veal
Provides the meat for the fried balls, adding savory flavor and firmness.

The step that matters

Frying the veal balls in boiling lard until cinnamon brown. Frying in very hot fat sets the outside quickly and drives browning reactions that add flavor, while keeping the interior moist. Too little heat leaves the balls greasy and pale.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beans, pepper, marjoram, summer savory, egg, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beans, pepper, marjoram, summer savory, egg, 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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