A whole salted, smoked, and dried half-sheep's head, slowly boiled and eaten straight off the bone. By west-coast custom the fatty ear and eye are eaten first while the fat is still hot, the cheek and tongue saved as the prized finish. A defiantly traditional autumn and pre-Christmas delicacy of western Norway.
Smalahove — literally 'sheep's head' — comes from the mountain valleys around Voss in western Norway, born of a hard-times ethic that nothing from a slaughtered animal should go to waste. After autumn slaughter the heads are split, the fleece torched off, the brain removed, then the heads are salted, often smoked over birch or juniper, and dried. Once a poor family's food, it has flipped into a sought-after seasonal delicacy eaten in the weeks before Christmas, traditionally washed down with akevitt and beer. Custom holds that the heads should be eaten by the last Sunday before Christmas, and the town of Voss now celebrates it as a point of culinary pride.
The cheek is the prize — meltingly soft, deeply smoky, gelatinous where it meets the bone. The tongue is firm and rich, but custom has you start with the fatty ear, crackly and eaten while the fat is hot, and the eye. The whole thing carries the birch-smoke and salt-cure perfume of an old mountain larder. It is unapologetically primal eating.
Salting and smoking both preserve the head and build savory, phenolic depth while the long cure firms the meat. Hours of gentle simmering hydrolyzes the abundant collagen in cheek and skin into gelatin, turning tough connective tissue silky.
Variations
Smoked vs unsmoked (only salted and dried), served with mashed swede or rutabaga, accompanied by akevitt, modern restaurant plating of cheek meat only
On the Palate
Where Smalahove sits in the Norwegian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2How it's made
8 steps · 30 min
- 130 min
If using a dried, salted head, soak it overnight in cold water to draw out excess salt.
Watch outSoak the salted head overnight and taste the water — if it's still very salty, change it, or the finished meat will be inedibly salty.
- 210 min
Scrub the head well and split it in half lengthwise if not already halved.
- 35 min
Place each half in a large pot, cut side down, and cover generously with cold water.
- 48 min
Add a little salt, bring slowly to a simmer, and skim off any foam that rises.
- 5180 min
Simmer very gently for about 3 hours until the meat is tender and pulls easily from the bone.
Watch outKeep it at the barest simmer for about three hours — the meat is ready when cheek and skin slip off the bone; a hard boil toughens it and clouds the broth.
- 630 min
Meanwhile boil and mash swede and potatoes for the traditional sides.
- 73 min
Lift the head out and serve it upright on the plate with the mash alongside.
- 815 min
Eat with a knife and small spoon, starting with the ear and eye, then cheek and tongue.
