DISH RESEARCH · Main dish
Smalahove
Matprat’s smalahove gently poaches prepared half sheep heads, makes a separate rutabaga-and-carrot mash and finishes boiled potatoes with butter and parsley before serving them with the heads’ own broth.
About Smalahove
Research draft based on the references below. These notes describe particular recipes and presentations; ingredient connections are still being reviewed.
Matprat describes smalahove as a meal associated with the weeks before Christmas and the final Sunday before it. This recipe serves half sheep heads with potatoes and its own rutabaga-and-carrot mash.
The selected preparation covers the half heads with water in a large pot and cooks them gently over low heat for four to five hours. The recipe stresses gentle heat to preserve flavour.
Rutabaga and carrot are peeled, cut and boiled in water until tender. Their cooking water is poured off, the vegetables are briefly steam-dried and the mash is enriched with cream and butter, then seasoned with salt, grated nutmeg and freshly ground pepper.
Small potatoes boil in a separate pot of water. After draining, they are turned with an additional butter portion and finely chopped parsley.
The half heads are plated with the freshly boiled potatoes, their own poaching broth and the root-vegetable mash. The source describes beginning the meal near the ear and moving through the different parts of the head.
Ingredients in Smalahove
Recorded ingredient connections, rather than a complete recipe. Explore an ingredient for more detail.
Ingredient connections awaiting review. Versions and preparation vary.
Origins & food traditions
Explore the countries and cooking traditions associated with this dish. These connections do not establish a single birthplace or limit where the dish is eaten today.