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Lamb’s Head Minced

A dish of minced lamb head, brains fried in lard, heart, liver, and lights stewed in gravy, served with the head.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 the head and brains

  1. Divide the lamb's head in two.

  2. Blanch the head with the liver, heart, and lights.

  3. Clean the brains in warm water.

Coat and fry the brains

  1. Dip the brains in egg yolk.

  2. Coat the brains with breadcrumbs and parsley seasoned with pepper and salt.

  3. Fry the brains in lard until golden.

  4. Drain the brains.

Make the minced mixture

  1. Chop the heart, liver, and lights.

  2. Add parsley and lemon peel to the mixture.

  3. Stew the mixture in white gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Coat the head with egg.

  2. Sprinkle the head with breadcrumbs.

  3. Brown the head in a Dutch oven.

  4. Serve the head with the minced mixture around it.

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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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 sticks to the brains and forms a golden crust.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer coating when fried or baked.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and encourages golden browning on the coated brains.
White gravy
Supplies moisture so the minced mixture stays tender while it stews.
Lamb's heart
Provides the dense, meaty body of the minced mixture.
Lamb's liver
Adds rich, savoury flavour and softness to the minced mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the brains in lard until golden. The breadcrumb and egg coating sets and browns in hot fat, forming a crust. Too low a heat leaves the coating greasy and pale, while too high a heat burns the crumbs before the interior is cooked 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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