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Fried Brain's with Tomato Sauce

A dish of fried brains served with a tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fried Brain's with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes, half a carrot, half a turnip, and one onion.

  2. Reserve two slices of each.

  3. Place the sliced vegetables in a saucepan with 2 cups of boiling water, thyme, parsley, cloves, peppercorns, and a bayleaf.

  4. Boil until tender, then strain the mixture.

  5. In another pan, melt the butter and mix with flour until bubbling.

  6. Gradually stir in ½ pint of boiling water.

  7. Combine the mixture with the strained tomato sauce and keep hot.

Prepare the brains

  1. Soak the brains in saltwater for at least one hour.

  2. Remove the brains from the water.

  3. Remove the membrane from the brains.

  4. Blanch the brains in cold water with the reserved vegetable slices, bayleaf, cloves, parsley, thyme, salt, and vinegar for 15 minutes.

  5. Drain the brains and dry them.

Bread and fry

  1. Coat the brains in bread crumbs.

  2. Dip the coated brains in beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of cold water.

  3. Fry the brains in hot lard until golden.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
The main protein; firm when fried and tender inside after gentle blanching.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres and forms a crisp shell when fried.
Flour
Thickens the butter mixture into a roux that gives the tomato sauce body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the roux that thickens the sauce.
Tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the sauce.
Lard
Frying fat that browns the coating and gives a golden, crisp crust.

The step that matters

Fry the brains in hot lard until golden. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it crisps; if too hot, it browns before the centre heats through.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, thyme, parsley, clove, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, thyme, parsley, clove, butter, flour. 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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