Sheep's Head Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the sheep's head in water overnight to clean it.
Singe the head with a red-hot iron and remove the skin if desired.
Split the head and remove the brain.
Cook the soup
Place the head in a stewpan with 5 quarts of water and add the pearl barley and vegetables.
Boil for 4 to 4.5 hours until tender.
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
What each ingredient does
- Sheep's head
- Provides the meat and bone that flavour and enrich the broth as it simmers.
- Pearl barley
- Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as its starch releases during long cooking.
- Vegetables
- Add sweetness, aroma and body to the broth as they soften over the long simmer.
The step that matters
Boil for 4 to 4.5 hours until tender. The head needs a long, gentle boil so collagen in the connective tissue breaks down into gelatin. Stopping early leaves the meat tough and the broth thin.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.