Name: Stewed Sweet Breads with Peas
Ingredients: one-half pound of butter; one-half pint of sweet cream; one pound of chicken; a pound of bread crumbs; five eggs; one tea-spoonful of parsley chopped very fine; one tea-spoonful of onions chopped fine; one nutmeg; one-half lemon; pepper; salt; parsley; nutmeg; mace; cayenne

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Sweet cream: Adds richness and body, thickening the sauce into a creamy coating.
Flour (in the method): Thickens the pea liquor so it clings to the bread and peas.
Eggs: Add structure and binding to the dish.

The step that matters

Thickening the pea liquor with flour. Flour must be stirred into the hot liquor smoothly and cooked through; added unevenly it forms lumps, and undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, chicken, bread, egg, tea, onion):

Garlicfits better
Nutmegfits about as well
Celeryfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, chicken, bread, egg, tea, onion. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Mace	not in our table	0

Stewed Sweet Breads with Peas