Skip to main content
Main

Sweet-bread Salad

A salad of boiled sweetbread mixed with lettuce and dressed with a vinaigrette of egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, salt, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sweet-bread Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the sweetbread

  1. Boil the sweetbread for twenty minutes.

  2. Drop the sweetbread into cold milk.

  3. Wipe the sweetbread dry.

  4. Split the sweetbread.

  5. Fry the sweetbread in butter until brown.

  6. Cut the sweetbread into small pieces.

Add the lettuce

  1. Mix the pieces with lettuce.

Make the dressing

  1. Whisk the yolks of two eggs with two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, two teaspoonfuls of mixed mustard, salt, and half a cup of olive oil until well beaten.

  2. Add the olive oil in a fine stream while whisking.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

203Calories
6 gProtein
19 gFat
1 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3

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

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

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

  5. Olive + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbread (in the method)
Boiling then frying in butter gives a browned outside over a tender inside.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the oil and vinegar into a smooth, thick dressing.
Mixed mustard
Mustard helps hold the oil and vinegar together as an emulsion.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich oil.
Olive oil
Provides fat and body, giving the dressing its richness and smoothness.

The step that matters

Add the olive oil in a fine stream while whisking. Oil must be dispersed into small droplets while whisking so the yolks and mustard can emulsify it. Adding it too fast can make the dressing separate and stay oily.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, olive, egg):

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, olive, egg. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes