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Fricasseed Sweetbreads

A savory dish of sweetbreads simmered in gravy, then finished with egg, cream, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,765 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricasseed Sweetbreads

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the sweetbreads

  1. Cut uncooked sweetbreads into thin slices.

  2. Simmer the slices in rich gravy for 45 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the beaten egg, cream, and chopped parsley.

  2. Stir all ingredients together for a few minutes.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + parsleytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,392 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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, delicate meat that forms the body of the fricassee.
Rich gravy
Supplies moisture and savory flavor as the sweetbreads simmer.
Egg
Thickens the sauce gently and gives it a richer, smoother body.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the sauce and rounding its flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg. Egg thickens when heated, but if the sauce is too hot when it goes in, the egg can scramble and turn grainy. Remove the pan from direct heat or lower the heat first, then stir steadily while the egg sets into a smooth sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. White pepperfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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