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Lamb's Head, Another Way

A lamb's head dish cooked with liver, heart, lungs, tongue, and seasoned with butter, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Lamb's Head, Another Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Boil the lamb's head until tender.

  2. Pluck the lamb's head, ensuring the liver is not overcooked.

  3. Hack the head crosswise.

  4. Grate nutmeg over the head.

  5. Place the head in a dish before a good fire.

  6. Mix bread crumbs, sweet herbs, chopped lemon peel, pepper, and salt, then baste the head with butter.

  7. Dredge the head with flour.

Make the sauce

  1. Chop half the liver, heart, lungs, and tongue.

  2. Combine the chopped parts with gravy or water and a little flour.

  3. Simmer the mixture for a few minutes.

  4. Add vinegar to the simmering mixture.

  5. Pour the mixture into the dish around the head.

Serve

  1. Lay the remaining liver, sliced thin, around the head.

  2. Lay broiled bacon around the head.

  3. Garnish with lemon.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb's head
Forms the main body of the dish and is the centerpiece that the other parts surround.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown and taste savory as it is basted over the head.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating with the herbs and butter that helps the surface brown.
Flour
Dusts the head and thickens the chopped-meat sauce so it clings and becomes glossy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the rich flavors of the meats and sauce.
Lamb's liver
Contributes a deep, rich meaty flavor and soft texture to the sauce and the sliced garnish.

The step that matters

Pluck the lamb's head, ensuring the liver is not overcooked. Liver turns dry, grainy and bitter when overcooked because its proteins tighten and it loses moisture. Pulling it at the right point keeps it tender and mild.

“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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