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Lamb's Head Minced

A dish of minced lamb's head, liver, heart, lungs, and brains, seasoned and fried or stewed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lamb's Head Minced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Divide the lamb's head in two and blanch it with the liver, heart, and lungs in warm water.

  2. Clean the brains in warm water, then dip them in the egg yolk, and coat with breadcrumbs and chopped parsley, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Cook

  1. While the head is cooking, fry the brains until golden and drain them.

  2. Chop the heart, liver, and lungs, then add parsley and lemon peel, and stew them in a little water.

  3. Coat the head with egg, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and season as before.

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

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

  2. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Lamb + livertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together145 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the brains and head.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when the brains are fried.
Lamb's liver
Adds rich, savoury flavour and a soft texture to the stewed mixture.

The step that matters

Frying the brains until golden. Brains are delicate and the breadcrumb coating can burn or fall off if the heat is too high. Moderate heat lets the coating brown evenly while the inside cooks through.

“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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