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Lamb Sweetbreads, Larded

Lamb sweetbreads are larded and simmered in veal stock with vegetables, finished with an egg‑cream sauce.

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 ↓

Lamb Sweetbreads, Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak the sweetbreads in water for 2–3 hours, changing the water frequently.

  2. Boil the sweetbreads in a saucepan for 5–6 minutes to firm them up.

  3. Remove the sweetbreads and place them in cold water.

  4. Lard the sweetbreads closely.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the larded sweetbreads with veal stock, carrot, onion, celery, and butter rolled in flour.

  2. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, basting liberally.

  3. Beat the egg and mix it with cream, parsley, and nutmeg.

  4. Remove the carrot, onion, and celery from the sauce.

  5. Let the sauce cool for a minute.

  6. Add the egg and cream mixture to the sauce.

  7. Stir constantly until hot, but do not let it boil.

  8. Season with salt and pepper if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve the sweetbreads on a hot dish, strain the sauce over them, and serve with sorrel or tomato sauce.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Main protein; firming in boiling sets their texture before larding and simmering.
Egg
Thickens the cream sauce as it gently heats, giving it body without boiling.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce, helping it coat the sweetbreads.
Butter
Rolled in flour, it thickens the veal stock into a light sauce.
Veal stock
Forms the savoury base of the sauce and carries the flavour of the vegetables.

The step that matters

Stir the egg and cream mixture in off the heat, and do not let it boil. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated, so the sauce turns grainy. Cooling briefly and stirring constantly keeps it smooth and thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, celery, butter, flour, egg, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, celery, butter, flour, egg, cream. 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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