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Sweetbreads and Mushrooms

Sweetbreads sautéed and served with mushrooms in a cream sauce thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Parboil the sweetbreads, remove all strings and fibre, and cut each one into two pieces.

  2. Soak one pound of sweetbreads in salt water for one-half hour, then boil them with an onion until tender.

  3. When nearly cool, skin the sweetbreads and pick them into small pieces.

Saute and make the sauce

  1. Heat one tablespoon butter and lay the sweetbreads in the pan.

  2. Saute quickly, turning them once.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and lay on a hot dish.

  4. Cut one-half can of mushrooms in halves and drop them into the pan.

  5. Add one-fourth cup cream to the pan.

  6. Thicken quickly with one tablespoon flour, and when it bubbles, stir smooth and remove from the pan.

  7. Pour the whole on a hot dish around the sweetbreads.

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. Mix one heaping tablespoon butter with one tablespoon flour, one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, and one can of French mushrooms.

  2. Boil these together for a few minutes, stirring to keep from burning.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

617Calories
14 gProtein
18 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Main protein, which turns tender and delicate when parboiled and then sauteed briefly.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the sauce, giving it a smooth, silky body.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it heats, so it becomes smooth and clings to the sweetbreads.
Mushrooms (in the method)
Add earthy flavour and a tender, juicy texture to the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and carries the sauteing of the sweetbreads and mushrooms.

The step that matters

Thicken quickly with flour, then stir smooth. Flour thickens cream only when it is heated and stirred; if it sits without stirring, it forms lumps and the sauce stays thin in places.

“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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