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Sweetbreads in Cases

Sweetbreads cooked in a creamy sauce with mushrooms and bread crumbs, then baked in pastry cases.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sweetbreads in Cases

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Wash and soak sweetbreads in cold water.

  2. Boil sweetbreads in water with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon vinegar for 20 minutes, then plunge into cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. Scald cream in a double boiler.

  2. In a frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter with flour until smooth and frothy, then gradually add cream.

  3. Return the mixture to the double boiler to keep warm and add seasoning.

Assemble and brown

  1. Drain mushrooms, cut into small pieces, and mix with bread crumbs, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cut sweetbreads into small cakes, add to the sauce with mushrooms, and cook until heated through.

  3. Fill cases with the mixture, cover with buttered crumbs, place on a baking sheet, and brown the crumbs.

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Form the tender, meaty filling that gives the cases their main body.
Cream
Forms the richness and smooth body of the sauce once thickened.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a bit of moisture to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form the topping that browns in the oven, adding a crisp golden crust.

The step that matters

Gradually add cream to the butter and flour. Adding cream slowly to the hot roux lets the starch disperse evenly. Adding it all at once can leave lumps, so the sauce will not turn smooth.

“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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