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Scrambled Brains

Scrambled brains are sheep brains cooked with butter, salt, pepper, vinegar, onion, garlic, and a garden bouquet, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scrambled Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Place the brains in cold water until all the blood is drawn out.

  2. Remove all skin.

  3. Put the brains in a sauce pan to boil, adding an onion, garlic, a small garden bouquet, salt, and pepper to taste.

  4. Boil well for fifteen minutes.

  5. Drain off all water and transfer the brains to a hot dish.

Brown and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan until red hot and add two good tablespoonfuls of butter, browning it nicely.

  2. Add one teaspoonful of vinegar and pour it over the brains.

  3. Serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

111Calories
0 gProtein
12 gFat
2 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Sheepnot in our table0

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.

  1. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep brains
The main ingredient; boiling firms its soft texture until it can be served hot.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and, when browned, adds a nutty, savoury taste.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the rich flavour of the brains and butter.

The step that matters

Browning the butter. Butter moves from golden to burnt quickly. Browning milk solids in hot fat creates nutty, savoury flavour, but once they blacken the taste turns bitter.

“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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