Name: Veal Sweet Breads
Ingredients: Veal sweetbreads; Cold water; Salt; Eggs; Cracker crumbs; Butter or beef drippings; Mushrooms (optional)

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Veal Sweet Breads

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the veal sweetbreads and remove any adhering skin.
Soak them in cold water with a little salt for about two hours.
Parboil the sweetbreads until tender.
Transfer to cold water for a few minutes to whiten them, then set in a cool place.
When ready to cook, dip the sweetbreads in beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Fry in hot butter or beef drippings until golden.
Serve with stewed mushrooms poured over them, if desired.

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.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,446 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + mushroomtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,987 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,381 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).