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Sweetbreads a LA Creme

A dish of sweetbreads simmered in stock, then finished in a cream sauce with lemon and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Sweetbreads a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Wash the sweetbreads.

  2. Soak them in cold salted water for 30 minutes.

  3. Bring the sweetbreads to a boil.

  4. Plunge them into a basin of cold water with salt and lemon juice.

  5. Wash the sweetbreads again.

  6. Trim off any fat or pipes.

Simmer

  1. Place the sweetbreads in a pan with stock, mace, onion, celery, and peppercorns.

  2. Simmer until cooked, about 1 to 2 hours.

  3. Remove the sweetbreads from the pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in the pan.

  2. Add the flour and cook lightly.

  3. Gradually add the strained stock.

  4. Stir in the milk and cream.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  6. Cook thoroughly.

  7. Season with salt.

  8. Add lemon juice.

  9. Return the sweetbreads to the sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve on a bed of mashed potatoes or fried bread, coated with sauce.

  2. Garnish with cut ham, fried bread, lemon, and parsley.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein; the tender, delicate meat that the sauce coats.
Butter
Enriches the base of the sauce and carries flavour through the roux.
Flour
Thickens the stock and milk into a smooth, coating sauce when cooked with the butter.
Milk or cream
Adds body, mild sweetness and a silky texture to the sauce.
Stock
Forms the savoury liquid base of the sauce and flavours the sweetbreads as they cook.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and cream to the roux-thickened stock. Flour must be cooked with butter before liquid is added, or the sauce tastes raw and floury. Once the milk and cream go in, the sauce must be brought to a boil and cooked through so the starch swells fully and the dairy does not scorch on the base of the pan.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, lemon, milk, celery, butter, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, lemon, milk, celery, 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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