Name: Sweetbreads with Peas
Ingredients: one teaspoonful of but- ter; one-half pint of stock broth; one-half teaspoonful of brown flour; one-half pint of stock; a tablespoonful of butter; three small sweetbreads; salt; pepper

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sweetbreads with Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

Stand the sweetbreads in cold water for an hour.
Parboil the sweetbreads and remove rough edges, membranes, sinews, etc.
Put the sweetbreads in cold water and keep in ice until wanted.

Cook the sweetbreads

Put the butter and the sweetbreads into the chafing dish.
When the butter has been absorbed, add one-half pint of stock and the celery leaf, chopped fine, the salt, pepper, and browned flour.
Turn the sweetbreads.
When the mixture is reduced by one-half, it is ready.

Prepare the peas and serve

Open a can of green peas.
Warm the peas thoroughly in the chafing dish.
Add salt, pepper, and a tablespoonful of butter to the peas.
Serve peas and sweetbreads together.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

563Calories

13 gProtein

13 gFat

96 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + peppertop 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: Main protein; parboiling firms them and cooking in the sauce makes them tender and flavorful.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the pan sauce a smooth body.
Stock: Supplies liquid that, once reduced, becomes the savory sauce coating the sweetbreads.
Brown flour: Thickens the stock into a sauce as it reduces.
Green peas (in the method): Provide a sweet, fresh vegetable contrast to the rich sweetbreads.

The step that matters

Parboiling the sweetbreads. Parboiling firms the delicate tissue and makes membranes and sinews easier to remove cleanly. Skipping or rushing it leaves tough, chewy pieces in the finished dish.

“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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Sweetbreads with Peas