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Sweetbreads with Tomatos

Sweetbreads simmered with tomatoes, spices, and a browned flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweetbreads with Tomatos

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Place sweetbreads in scalding water for a few minutes, then transfer them to cold water to cool.

  2. Remove the skin without breaking the sweetbreads.

Stew and brown

  1. Combine sweetbreads, water, and seasonings in a stew pan and cook over low heat.

  2. Mix browned flour with a small piece of butter until smooth, then add the mixture to the stew pan with mace.

  3. Stir well and adjust seasoning if necessary.

  4. Let stew for 30 minutes.

  5. Transfer the stew pan to a 400°F (200°C) oven until sweetbreads are browned.

Make the tomato sauce and serve

  1. In a separate pan, thicken stewed tomatoes with flour and butter, seasoning to taste.

  2. Strain the tomato mixture into the stew pan.

  3. Bring to a boil and stir until done.

  4. Pour the sauce over the sweetbreads.

  5. Serve hot in a heated dish.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the tender, meaty main body of the dish.
Browned flour
Adds a toasted, deeper color and flavor to the stew.
Stewed tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the tomato mixture into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the thickened sauce and stew.

The step that matters

Thickening the tomato sauce. Flour must be cooked smoothly into the butter and liquid while stirring, and the sauce brought to a boil, so it thickens evenly without lumps or a raw floury taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, butter, tomato):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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