Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Sweetbreads
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sweetbreads
Clean, wash, and parboil the sweetbreads.
Soak them in cold water for a few minutes.
Remove all fibrous matter and separate into small pieces.
Make the sauce and serve
In a pan, melt the butter and add the flour, stirring constantly for a few minutes until smooth.
Gradually add enough cream or milk to thin the sauce.
Stir in the egg yolks, then add the sweetbreads.
Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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, delicate meat that forms the body of the dish.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the melted butter into a roux that gives the sauce body.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the sauce and give it a smooth, creamy texture when stirred in.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping form the roux.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the butter. Flour must be stirred constantly while it cooks in the melted butter; stopping lets it scorch or form lumps, and cooking it smooth is what lets the later liquid thicken the sauce evenly.
“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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