How to properly slow cook lamb's head?

There is a (Turkish?) specialty, boiled lamb's head.

In restaurants, I've noticed it's boiled to an extent that you can pull apart skull segments easily and access the brains.

Whatever I try I can't reach this state. Recently, I used sous vide for about 18 hours, 84°C.

Any experiences with this?

sous-vide lamb

Best Answer

I don't have any experience with cooking heads, but the problem sounds familiar enough.

The quality of meat in restaurants is often far better than what you can buy at a regular consumer market. What you - a regular layperson - buy as a "lambs head" might actually be an old rams head. What a restaurant chef buys is fresh meat from suppliers the chef trusts to deliver high quality. I don't want to imply that you aren't able to distinguish the head of a young lamb from that of an old sheep. People just try a lot of things to earn more money for less quality wares.

The reason why I suggest your sheep might have been old is that the segments of the skull are seperated at birth and fuse with age. From a certain age (I'm not sure what that age is in sheep) the upper skull is one solid bone and no amount of cooking can seperate the individual segments. Especially male sheep have a very solid skull to protect the brain from damage while ramming their horns into opponents.

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How long do you cook lamb in slow cooker?

Put the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary into your slow cooker and sit the lamb on top. Pour over the lamb gravy. Put the lid on and cook for 8 hrs or until soft and tender.

How long does it take to cook a sheeps head?

Cover the basket with a layer of damp cheesecloth, close the lid tightly, and steam the meat for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, or until the meat is very tender and can be pulled easily from the bone.

Can you slow cook lamb for too long?

However, if you leave lamb in the slow cooker for too long it will become stringy and dry. Although it's still edible, it won't have the same tender juiciness that you want from slow-cooked lamb.

Garlic and Herb Roast Leg of Lamb, Slow Cooked

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