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Sheep's Head Broth

A hearty broth made from a sheep's head, trotters, vegetables, and barley, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sheep's Head Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and trotters

  1. Get a singed sheep's head and trotters.

  2. Have the head cut open by the butcher.

  3. Remove the brains and rub them over the head and trotters.

  4. Let them sit overnight.

  5. Wash the head with warm water.

  6. Place the head in a pan and cover with cold water.

  7. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let soak for 1 hour.

  8. Scrape the head well and wash it thoroughly inside and out.

  9. Split the trotters between the toes and remove the insides.

Make the broth

  1. Place the head and trotters in cold water with the washed and scalded barley.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 1½ hours.

  3. Add the cabbage, 1 carrot, turnip, onion, and 2 leeks, all finely chopped, along with salt and pepper.

  4. Boil for an additional 2 hours.

  5. Add the grated second carrot to the broth 1 hour before serving.

Serve

  1. Remove the flesh from the bones and arrange it neatly on a dish.

  2. Skin the tongue, split it in two, and place it in the center of the dish.

  3. Pour parsley sauce over the dish before serving.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 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

Barley
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering.
Sheep's head
Provides rich gelatin and meat that give the broth body and flavour.
Trotters
Add collagen that turns into gelatin, giving the broth a silky body.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it softens into the broth.

The step that matters

Scalding and washing the barley. Rinsing and scalding the barley removes surface dust and bitter residue, so the broth stays clean-tasting and clear rather than cloudy or muddy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (leek, carrot, turnip, cabbage, barley, pepper, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against leek, carrot, turnip, cabbage, barley, pepper, parsley. 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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