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Stewed Sweet-bread with Champignon

A stew of sweetbread, bread, mushrooms, butter, Madeira, parsley, onion, eggs, sweet cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Sweet-bread with Champignon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbread

  1. Parboil one set of sweetbread.

  2. Remove all the skin and fat from the sweetbread.

  3. Cut the sweetbread into pieces and put them in a small saucepan.

  4. Add a can of champignon, also cut up, and the liquor.

  5. Add a quarter pound of butter and a little cayenne pepper.

  6. Let the champignon cook for half an hour before adding the sweetbread.

  7. Just before taking them off, add a teacupful of Madeira or sherry.

  8. Thicken with a little flour and brown with burnt brown sugar.

Make the croquette mixture

  1. Chop one pound of cold turkey or chicken very finely, also chop the herbs.

  2. Mix the chopped meat and herbs together; season with salt, pepper, and powdered mace to taste.

  3. Add cayenne pepper (preferable to black pepper) and season delicately with mace.

  4. Grate one nutmeg and break two raw eggs.

  5. Make a soft panada of the bread, butter, and a little water.

  6. When the panada is cold, mix it with the meat and break in two more raw eggs.

  7. Add three tablespoonfuls of sweet cream; mix thoroughly.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into any shape you please.

  2. Dip the croquettes in raw egg, then in grated bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in boiling lard.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

914Calories
52 gProtein
28 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot 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.

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbread (in the method)
Provides the tender, delicate meat that forms the main body of the dish.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and panada together and coat the croquettes for a golden crust.
Bread
Forms a soft panada that adds moisture and lightness to the croquette mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the mixture moist and gives flavor.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness to the croquette mixture.

The step that matters

Shape and fry the croquettes. The mixture must be cold and firm before shaping, or it will be too soft to hold its form. Frying in very hot lard quickly sets the egg coating and crust while keeping the inside moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, tea, parsley, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, tea, parsley, egg, nutmeg. 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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