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Lamb's Head

A stew of lamb's head with brains, meatballs, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lamb's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Wash and clean the lamb's head thoroughly.

  2. Soak it in water for 1 hour, then remove the brains, bones, and tongue carefully.

  3. Remove the eyes and set aside.

Make the forcemeat and brains

  1. Chop veal, beef suet, thyme, lemon peel, nutmeg, and anchovies together.

  2. Mix with grated rolls and 4 egg yolks.

  3. Reserve enough mixture to form about 20 balls.

  4. Beat the brains with lemon peel, parsley, nutmeg, and 1 egg yolk.

  5. Fry the brains in small cakes in hot oil and keep warm.

  6. Fry the reserved meatballs and keep warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Stew oysters in 2 quarts of gravy with mace.

  2. Tie the lamb's head with string, cover, and stew for 2 hours.

  3. Strain the gravy from the stew, add truffles, morels, and mushrooms, and boil together.

  4. Add the remaining fried brains to the gravy and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

  5. Pour the gravy over the lamb's head and arrange the fried brains and meatballs around it.

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. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Lamb + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the bulk of the meatballs, giving them a firm, meaty body.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and rich as they cook.
Stale rolls
Absorb liquid and bind the forcemeat so it holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat and enrich the brains, helping them set and hold together.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavour and moisture to the finished gravy.
Truffles
Add a strong, aromatic earthy flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the brains in small cakes. Brains are soft and delicate. Hot oil sets the egg-bound outside quickly, giving a crisp crust, while keeping the inside tender. Too cool an oil lets the cakes soak up fat and fall apart.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, veal, beef, thyme, lemon, egg, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, veal, beef, thyme, lemon, egg, mushroom. 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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