Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Home Recipe Book
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sweetbread
Soak the sweetbread in cold water for one hour or longer.
Put it in boiling water or white stock and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes or half an hour.
Make the sauce
To make the sauce, boil the onion, thyme, and lemon peel in a pint of milk until it is reduced to half the quantity.
Strain the thickening with flour and milk, and stir the boiling milk into it.
Season with pepper and salt, and keep stirring over the fire until thick.
Combine and serve
Take the sweetbread out of the water or stock, and put it into the sauce.
Stew very slowly for a quarter of an hour.
Add a little lemon juice, if liked.
Toast bacon may be served with it.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Salt | 1 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.
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.
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Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Flour + thymetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,721 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweetbread
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered and then stewed.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk sauce, giving it body as it cooks.
- Milk (in the method)
- Forms the base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body when reduced and thickened.
- Onion
- Flavours the milk sauce as it simmers, adding savoury depth.
The step that matters
Stirring the thickening until thick. Flour thickens only when the milk mixture is hot enough and stirred constantly; stopping early leaves the sauce thin, and letting it sit can cause lumps.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, thyme, pepper):
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, thyme, pepper. 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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