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To Stew Lamb’s Head

A stew made from lamb's head, liver, lights, and seasonings, finished with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Stew Lamb’s Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the lamb's head for 45 minutes, the liver for 15 minutes, and the lights for 1 hour or more.

  2. Remove the head from the pot and mix with the egg yolk, parsley, lemon peel, thyme, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and bread crumbs.

  3. Grill the mixture and prepare brain-cakes as for calf's head or forcemeat.

Serve

  1. Serve with rich gravy.

  2. If the gravy is not thick enough, add a little flour and butter before serving.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so it holds together when grilled.
Bread crumbs
Adds body and absorbs moisture, giving the mixture a softer texture.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, smoothing the thickened gravy.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy. Flour needs to be cooked with fat and liquid to thicken smoothly; adding it raw or in large lumps can leave the gravy pasty or grainy. Stirring gently while it simmers lets the starch swell evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, liver, egg, parsley, lemon, thyme, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, liver, egg, parsley, lemon, thyme, pepper. 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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