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Aspic Sweetbread

Aspic Sweetbread is a chilled aspic made from sweetbreads, celery, gelatin, and mayonnaise, served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Aspic Sweetbread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak the sweetbreads in cold water until white.

  2. Simmer in boiling water with red pepper, salt, mace, and bay leaf until well done.

  3. Remove all pipes, leaving the meat clean.

  4. Dry the sweetbreads with a cloth and cut into small slices.

  5. Prepare an equal amount of finely chopped celery.

Make the aspic

  1. Dissolve and strain the gelatin, then stir it into the sweetbreads and celery.

  2. Rinse small molds with cold water and fill them about an inch deep with the mixture until slightly set. Pour in more mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mace + celerytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Celery + gelatintop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Pepper + gelatintop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the tender meat that forms the body of the aspic.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the molds.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh flavor that contrasts with the soft meat.
Mayonnaise
Adds richness and fat to balance the lean, firm aspic.

The step that matters

Dissolving and straining the gelatin. Gelatin must be fully dissolved and strained before mixing, or lumps and fragments will leave the aspic cloudy and unevenly set. Pouring in mixture only once it is slightly set keeps the ingredients evenly suspended.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, celery, gelatin):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, celery, gelatin. 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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