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Sheep’s Head Roasted with Chopped Liver, and Roast Potatoes

A roasted sheep's head served with chopped liver and roast potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sheep’s Head Roasted with Chopped Liver, and Roast Potatoes

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Clean the sheep's head and season it with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Place the sheep's head in a roasting pan and add butter or oil.

  4. Meanwhile, peel and cut the potatoes into wedges.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in the oven for about 1.5 to 2 hours, basting occasionally.

  2. In the last 30 minutes of roasting, add the potatoes to the pan.

  3. Serve the roasted sheep's head with chopped liver and roast potatoes.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Sheep's head
Forms the main roasted meat, becoming tender and browned during long, slow roasting.
Butter or oil
Conducts heat and carries fat that helps the meat brown and stay moist.
Potatoes
Absorb roasting fat and brown on the outside while softening inside.
Chopped liver
Adds a rich, savoury flavour and a soft texture to the plate.

The step that matters

Adding the potatoes in the last 30 minutes. Potatoes added too early can overcook and turn mushy, while added too late they stay pale and raw in the centre. Timing them to the final half hour lets them brown and cook through alongside the head.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, butter. 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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