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Sheep's Head Broth

A hearty broth made from a sheep's head, trotters, barley, carrots, turnips, onion, and optional peas.

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 with a red-hot iron.

  2. Split the head and remove the brain and white of the eye. Rub the head and trotters with the eye.

  3. Let the head and trotters sit for 2 hours.

  4. Wash the head and trotters thoroughly in lukewarm water. Rinse the head and trotters well.

  5. Remove the tough membrane from between the toes. Soak the trotters in cold water for 2 hours.

Make the broth

  1. Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil in a large pot. Add ¾ pound of Scotch barley, then the head, trotters, and neck.

  2. Add 1 quart each of diced carrots and turnips, and a little salt. Cover the pot.

  3. Boil for 4 hours. Skim off any scum.

  4. Add 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

Sheep's head
Gives the broth its rich, gelatinous body and deep meaty flavor as it simmers.
Sheep trotters
Release collagen during long simmering, adding body and a silky, thickened texture to the broth.
Scotch barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving it a hearty texture.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they soften over the long simmer.
Turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly peppery sweetness and soften into the broth during cooking.

The step that matters

Skimming off the scum during the boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise to the surface; removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

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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