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Lamb's Head Broth

A clear broth made by simmering a lamb's head with vegetables and barley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Lamb's Head Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Divide the lamb's head in half and tie it together with kitchen twine.

  2. Place the head in a saucepan with the cold water and ½ teaspoon of salt.

Make the broth

  1. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil. Skim off any foam.

  2. Add the blanched barley, carrot, turnip, and onion.

  3. Simmer gently for four hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Carefully remove the head.

  2. Season the broth with pepper and additional salt if needed.

  3. Skim the broth.

  4. Add the parsley.

  5. Serve.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 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

Lamb's head
Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Pearl barley or rice
Adds body and a soft, starchy thickness to the broth as it cooks.
Carrot
Contributes sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth during long simmering.
Onion
Builds savoury depth and aroma in the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for four hours. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, whereas a rolling boil emulsifies fat and fine particles into it, making it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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