There is an old saying in China called "selling dog meat by selling sheep's heads", which means it is not worthy of the name. But today, the price of dog meat is probably no cheaper than that of mutton, so it doesn’t feel like a loss to buy dog ??meat with a sheep’s head!
The question I want to talk about is whether sheep head is delicious.
Generally speaking, except for fish heads and newly fried old heads, in most cases, poultry heads are cheaper than meat. This is simply because it is too difficult to cook livestock heads. Generally speaking, poultry heads are cheaper than meat. It's all just scraps. Most of the mutton soup we see in the market and even the frozen mutton we see in supermarkets are skinned and de-headed. There is a big reason for this because there is too much velvet on the surface of the sheep's head, making it very troublesome to clean. , so ordinary families will not buy sheep heads. At the same time, in order to facilitate storage and transportation, food companies usually remove sheep heads. This is another reason why it is rare to see a place specifically selling sheep heads.
However, here comes the problem. Many gourmets say that eating the head is the highest level of meat eating! It is said that the meat on the head not only has the richest taste, but also the face meat is the most delicate part of the animal. So, does the taste of sheep head taste like this?
When I was working as a reporter, a Cantonese chef told me that "mutton cheek" and "beef cheek" have been the best ingredients in Cantonese cuisine since ancient times, and they were euphemistically called "sheep head". "Fang", "Niutou Fang". Having said that, I have never eaten sheep head meat from Cantonese cuisine, but I have eaten lamb head meat from Northeast China. After finishing the mutton soup, the owner of the store brought a bit of boiled sheep head in white water. The round face was cut very thin. When eaten with salt, the gravy was really delicate. It can be described as smooth as silk! While enjoying the cold northeast wind, I ate a plate of sheep head meat and drank half a bottle of white wine.
I am very familiar with several restaurants in Xinjiang that are famous for their mutton, so naturally I have more opportunities to eat sheep heads there. The sheep head cuisine in Xinjiang restaurants must be systematic. For the more traditional ones, they will first burn the hair on the face of the sheep head several times with a fire, then shave it clean and then soak it in water. The method is also divided into red and white: the so-called "white" , is the clear water sheep head; and "red" refers to the stir-fried sheep head meat.
"Qingshui Sheep Head" is my favorite way to eat good mutton. It is boiled in hot water, and the meat on the face of the sheep is cut off and eaten like this with a little salt. If cooked well enough, the collagen texture will even stick to your mouth and nourish your skin. There are also different parts of the lamb ear, tongue, etc. that have different tastes. If you weren’t frightened by the sheep skull on the plate, it would actually be a delicacy in the world!
If you want to drink wine or are not used to the mutton smell, stir-fried lamb head meat is a very good choice. The chef carefully separates the tender meat from the lamb head and stir-fries it with chili. At this time, the lamb head meat will show another kind of refreshing taste! Moreover, mutton head meat is easy to taste. As long as the mutton head meat is slightly better, it will feel like eating game!
It is said that sheep heads were sold very cheaply on the streets of Xinjiang back then, because it was too troublesome to prepare and not many people were willing to do it. They usually sold for five yuan each, and there were many old ladies squatting on the roadside slowly eating them. This scene of eating a sheep's head was told to me by a media friend who has worked in Xinjiang. After I made up that picture in my own mind, although I had the urge to start cooking, I basically gave up the idea after carefully looking at the ingredient of sheep head. There was too much velvet on the sheep's face! What a hassle! So I’d better go out to the restaurant and eat lamb tripe.