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Sheep's Head Broth

A hearty broth made from a sheep's head, trotters, barley, carrots, turnips, and onion, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Sheep's Head Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and trotters

  1. Singe the sheep's head and trotters using a red-hot iron.

  2. Split the head and remove the brain and white of the eye.

  3. Rub the head and trotters with the eye, let sit for 2 hours, then wash in lukewarm water.

  4. Cut out the membrane between the toes and soak in cold water for 2 hours.

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, bring 2 gallons of water to a boil and add ¾ pound of Scotch barley.

  2. Once boiling, add the head, trotters, neck, diced carrots, and diced turnips.

  3. Add salt, cover the pot, and boil for 4 hours, skimming off any scum.

  4. Add the chopped onion about 1 hour before serving.

Garnish and serve

  1. Boil whole carrots and turnips for garnish around the dish.

  2. For summer, add green peas for extra flavor.

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. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

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

  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

Scotch barley
Thickens the broth and adds body as its starch releases during long simmering.
Sheep's head
Gelatinous bones and connective tissue enrich the broth with body and savoury depth.
Sheep trotters
Collagen-rich feet release gelatin, giving the broth a silky, rich mouthfeel.
Diced turnips
Soften during simmering and add mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming off the scum during the 4-hour boil. Impurities and foam rise to the surface as proteins coagulate. Removing them keeps the broth clear and prevents off-flavours from spreading through the liquid.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, carrot, turnip, onion):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, carrot, turnip, onion. 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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