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Savoury Sheeps Trotters

Savory sheep's trotters baked with gravy, breadcrumbs, cheese, and onion.

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

Savoury Sheeps Trotters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the trotters

  1. Boil the trotters until perfectly tender.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the dripping in a stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the sliced onion and parsley in the dripping, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Add ½ pint of stock and the Lemco, then cook slowly for 30 minutes.

Fill, dress and bake

  1. Fill each trotter with a little forcemeat where the bone has been removed.

  2. Place the trotters on a dish.

  3. Cover the trotters with breadcrumbs.

  4. Pour the gravy with vinegar around the trotters.

  5. Sprinkle more breadcrumbs and dust grated cheese over the top.

  6. Brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

  7. Serve in the dish it was cooked in.

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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + cheesetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's trotters
Provide the main body of the dish, becoming gelatinous and tender through long boiling.
Dripping
Adds fat and richness, carrying the flavour of the onion and parsley into the gravy.
Forcemeat
Fills the trotters where the bone was removed, adding a savoury, moist stuffing.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven and adds texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances its fat.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Boil the trotters until perfectly tender. Trotters are rich in collagen, which only softens into gelatin after prolonged gentle cooking. If they are under-boiled, they stay tough and chewy and will not hold their shape well once filled and baked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, parsley, pepper, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, parsley, pepper, cheese. 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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