Why it works: Ham and ketchup work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 280 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Sheep’s Head Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the head
Wash and soak the sheep's head, then remove the brains.
Cook the broth and meat
Boil the head with the ham, herbs, and vegetables until the meat falls from the bones.
Cut the best pieces of meat and the tongue into neat squares.
Make brain cakes from the brains as per the recipe in Mave Distt es.
Add the brown roux and seasoning to the broth, then stir in the ketchup.
Skim the broth and add the meat a few minutes before serving.
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.
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Ham + ketchuptop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sheep's head
- Provides the main meat and gelatinous body for the soup.
- Ham
- Adds savory, salty flavor to the broth as it simmers.
- Brown roux
- Thickens the broth and adds a deeper color and body.
- Ketchup or store sauce
- Adds sweetness and acidity to season and deepen the broth.
The step that matters
Skimming the broth. Fat and foam rise to the surface during boiling and can make the soup greasy and cloudy. Skimming before adding the meat keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.
“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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