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Lamb's Head a LA Royal

A roasted lamb's head served with a breadcrumb coating and a liver and heart mince sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Lamb's Head a LA Royal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Order the lamb's head from the butcher a day in advance, ensuring it has a larger scrap.

  2. Saw the head in two, wash it clean, and place it in a stock pot to boil until tender.

  3. Remove the head from the pot and pull out all the bones.

Coat and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix chopped parsley, lemon thyme, mushrooms, salt, and pepper with bread crumbs.

  2. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Egg the lamb's head and coat it with the bread crumb mixture, pressing it on well.

  3. Dip the head in the egg and then in the bread crumbs again for a second coating.

  4. Peel the tongue, egg it, and crumb it in the same manner, repeating the process three times for a nice appearance.

  5. Place the head and tongue on a baking sheet, drizzle with clarified butter, and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

Make the mince and serve

  1. Boil and mince the liver and heart, then combine with sauce piquant in a pan.

  2. Squeeze in lemon juice and season to taste.

  3. Serve the mince on a dish with the head and tongue in the center, garnished with croutons.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the head and tongue.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust around the head and tongue when baked.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury flavour to the crumb mixture.
Clarified butter
Conducts heat and promotes browning of the crust in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich liver and heart mince.

The step that matters

Pressing the crumb coating on well. Egg and crumb must cling firmly through baking; a loose coating can slide off or leave bare patches that dry out and brown unevenly.

“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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