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Sheep's-head Soup

A hearty soup made from a sheep's head, vegetables, and force-meat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sheep's-head Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the head

  1. Remove the brains and tongue from the sheep's head and set aside.

  2. Break the bone of the head.

  3. Wash the head well.

  4. Soak the head in salted water for 30 minutes.

  5. Cover the head with fresh water.

  6. Heat gradually to a boil.

  7. Drain the water to remove any odor.

Make the broth

  1. Add 4 quarts of cold water and the chopped vegetables and herbs.

  2. Boil slowly for 4 hours.

  3. Strain the soup into a bowl.

  4. Let the soup cool until the fat rises.

  5. Return the skimmed broth to the heat.

  6. Season the broth.

  7. Boil briefly.

  8. Stir in the milk mixed with corn starch.

  9. Simmer for 2 minutes.

Make the force-meat balls and serve

  1. Prepare the force-meat balls by mixing the chopped tongue and brains with bread crumbs, salt, pepper, parsley, and the raw egg.

  2. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  3. Dust the balls with flour.

  4. Place the balls on a tin plate.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until a crust forms.

  6. Place the force-meat balls in a tureen.

  7. Pour the soup over the balls.

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

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's head
Forms the rich, gelatinous base of the broth as it simmers for hours.
Eggs
Binds the force-meat balls so they hold their shape while baking.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and gives the force-meat balls a tender, binding body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished soup.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk-enriched broth so it becomes smooth and lightly body-rich.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk and corn starch into the broth. Corn starch needs to be added to hot liquid and kept simmering briefly so it gelatinizes and thickens. Adding it cold or skipping the short simmer leaves the soup thin and can let the milk separate or taste raw.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, bread, pepper, parsley, egg, flour):

  1. Parsnipfits about as well
  2. Turnipthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, bread, pepper, parsley, 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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