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Lamb’s-Head Stew

A stew made from a lamb's head, vegetables, and a seasoned gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lamb’s-Head Stew

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the head

  1. Boil the lamb's head in enough water to cover it with the onion, carrot, turnip, bay leaves, cloves, mace, salt, and pepper.

  2. Remove the head and vegetables when done.

  3. Strain the broth.

Make the gravy

  1. Thicken the broth with butter and flour.

  2. Add tarragon vinegar, chili vinegar, and mushroom ketchup to the thickened broth.

Serve

  1. Place the head in the center of a dish.

  2. Slice the vegetables and arrange them around the head.

  3. Pour the gravy over the head and vegetables.

  4. Garnish with fried bread and 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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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
Provides the meat and gelatin that give the stew its body and rich flavor.
Butter
Combined with flour to thicken the broth into a smooth, glossy gravy.
Flour
Thickens the broth with butter, giving the gravy body.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savory, umami depth to the gravy.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds bright acidity that balances the richness of the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the broth with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked into the butter and broth so it dissolves smoothly; added raw or in lumps, it leaves the gravy grainy and pasty.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, carrot, turnip, clove, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, carrot, turnip, clove, 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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