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Sweet-breads Fricasseed

A savory stew of sweetbreads simmered in beef broth with bay leaves, mace, and a butter‑flour roux, finished with crushed rusk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweet-breads Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Wash the sweetbreads in cold water and boil them in salted water for 30 minutes, using 1 teaspoon salt per pint of water.

  2. Remove the sweetbreads, trim them nicely, and place them in a deep skillet with the beef broth, bay leaves, mace, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover the skillet and cook slowly for another 30 minutes.

Make the gravy

  1. Mix the butter and flour together, then add 3 tablespoons of the cooking liquid from the sweetbreads and stir into the gravy without breaking the sweetbreads.

  2. Stir in the crushed rusks and let it simmer for 10 more minutes.

  3. Remove the bay leaves and mace before serving.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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
Are the main protein, becoming tender and delicate when simmered slowly in liquid.
Beef broth
Provides the cooking liquid that flavors the sweetbreads and forms the base of the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and with flour forms the thickening base of the gravy.
Browned flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Double baked rusk
Crushed into the gravy, it helps thicken the sauce and adds a toasted crumb flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter-flour mixture into the gravy. Adding flour and liquid carefully prevents lumps and keeps the thickened sauce smooth. Gentle stirring also keeps the delicate sweetbreads from breaking apart.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, 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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