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Lamb’s Head Broth

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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. Chop the lamb's head in half and tie it together with tape.

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

Make the broth

  1. Bring to a boil and remove any scum.

  2. Add the diced vegetables and rice or barley.

  3. Simmer for about three hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the head, skim the broth, and serve over a teaspoon of chopped parsley.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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 meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Rice or pearl barley
Adds body and a soft, starchy thickness to the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma as it softens in the broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove any scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Skimming it early keeps the broth clear and stops off flavours from spreading through the liquid during the long simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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