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Vol Ait Vent of Sweetbreads and Oysters

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Vol Ait Vent of Sweetbreads and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak sweetbreads in cold water for at least 30 minutes to cleanse and whiten them.

  2. Boil sweetbreads in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked but not overdone.

  3. Remove sweetbreads, drain, cool, and cut into dice. Season with salt, pepper, and dredge with flour.

  4. In a saucepan, melt butter and add flour, stirring well.

  5. Gradually pour in stock until the sauce is creamy. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  6. Add sweetbreads to the sauce, stirring to prevent browning.

  7. Once heated, add oysters, mushrooms, olives, and tarragon vinegar. Stir and heat again without boiling.

  8. Serve in a warmed vol au vent crust.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + tarragontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mushroom + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, oyster, mushroom, olive, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Tarragonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, oyster, mushroom, olive, pepper, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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