Smalahove – salted sheep’s or lamb’s head.

I am going to copy some of the things I just read just in case I have the privilege of going to Norway and eat this smalahove.

Over here in Penang, we eat pig’s head. Usually it is not served whole but rather, the cheeks and ears of pig. They are boiled in a soya-sauce till very soft and are part of the accompaniment in loh-bak.

lohbak2

The gelatinous skin/fat/soft bone of the ears and cheeks are dipped into chillie sauce and the sticky, brown sauce.

Therefore, when I read that they eat sheep’s head in Norway, I just clicked! Wow, delicacy to try next time.

The lamb’s head was smoked with alder wood chips which have a natural sweet flavour to it, so when I opened the packet the smell coming out of it was both heady and wonderfully smoky sweet. The head was also divided into two lengthways which makes it convenient to serve and eat.

How nice, you can buy a whole head from the supermarket. This is how Oslo Foodie prepared it :

I soaked the head in cold water for 8 hours before cooking. I boiled the water in the steamer, put the head onto the rack, made sure the water just simmer gently and put the lid on. This was steamed for 2½ hours.

When I read about eating the eye muscles….I wish I am not on vegetarian diet. I want to go out and find myself the biggest fish head and eat the eyes. 🙂

The eye muscle was scooped out and the black sac in the eye muscle was thrown away. And I thought the surprise was over until I ate the eye muscle. Wow. What a texture! On the first bite the muscle resisted a little then succumbed to the bite and giving a very fine balance of saltiness and gamey flavours. This was without a doubt my favourite part of the meat.

Surf over to Oslo Foodie and read the full story and take at look at the head of the sheep. It is nice to learn that we Chinese are not the only ones who eat every part of the animal.

Post Author: lilian

Used to be PenangFaces, now known as Food Haven, for all oink-oink foods

1 thought on “Smalahove – salted sheep’s or lamb’s head.

    OsloFoodie

    (April 3, 2006 - 4:19 am)

    Lilian, I’ve got to try this dish you’re talking about one day and to dip it into that brown and chilli sauce… it sounds so good!

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