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Creamed Sweetbreads

Sweetbreads simmered in a butter, flour, milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamed Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Remove tubes and membrane from 1 lb of sweetbreads.

  2. Clean and parboil in boiling salted water for twenty minutes.

  3. Drain and plunge into cold water.

  4. As soon as cool, remove from the water and cut into ½ inch cubes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and add 2 tablespoons flour mixed with 1 teaspoon of salt and a few grains of pepper.

  2. Pour on gradually 1 cup of milk.

  3. Reheat sweetbreads in sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

257Calories
8 gProtein
20 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads (in the method)
Parboiling firms the meat so the cubes hold their shape in the sauce.
Butter
Melted fat carries flavor and gives the sauce a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Flour (in the method)
Starch mixed with melted butter thickens the milk into a creamy sauce.
Milk
Liquid that hydrates the starch and forms the body of the cream sauce.

The step that matters

Pouring the milk into the butter and flour. Adding milk gradually while stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps of cooked flour.

“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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