Skip to main content
Main

Calves Ears Stuffed

Stuffed calf ears with liver, bacon, ham, bread, herbs, egg, and spices, fried and served in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Calves Ears Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ears

  1. Scald and clean the calves' ears after cutting them close to the head.

  2. Boil the ears until tender, then blanch them in cold water.

  3. Cut the gristle next to the head smooth to allow the ears to stand upright.

Stuff and coat

  1. Prepare stuffing by mixing calf's liver, fat bacon, grated ham, soaked bread, herbs, unbeaten egg, salt, and mace.

  2. Fill the cavity of the ears with the stuffing.

  3. Rub egg over the ears and stuffing, then dip in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the ears until they are a beautiful light brown.

  2. Serve in brown or white gravy, or tomato sauce.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Liver + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' ears
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when boiled and then fried.
Calf's liver
Adds richness and body to the stuffing.
Bread
Soaked in cream or gravy, it keeps the stuffing moist and softly textured.
Unbeaten egg
Binds the stuffing and, brushed on the outside, helps the bread crumbs stick.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry until light brown. Frying over moderate heat lets the breadcrumb coating brown gradually and set into a crisp crust while the filling heats through. Too much heat browns the outside before the stuffing is warm inside.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, bread, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, bread, egg. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes