Skip to main content
Main

Sweetbread Soup

A soup made with sweetbreads, breadcrumbs, cream, egg yolk, pepper, salt, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Sweetbread Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Boil the sweetbreads.

  2. Blanch the sweetbreads.

  3. Cool the sweetbreads.

  4. Chop the sweetbreads very fine.

Make the balls

  1. Soak the breadcrumbs.

  2. Rub the breadcrumbs smooth with cream.

  3. Mix the chopped sweetbreads with the breadcrumbs.

  4. Beat the egg yolk.

  5. Combine the beaten egg yolk with the mixture.

  6. Add pepper to taste.

  7. Add salt to taste.

  8. Form small balls with floured hands.

  9. Refrigerate the balls for 30 minutes.

Cook and serve

  1. Strain 1 quart of soup stock.

  2. Heat the strained stock.

  3. Skim off any fat from the stock.

  4. Drop the balls into the boiling stock.

  5. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  6. Pour the soup into a tureen.

  7. Serve.

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. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 main meaty filling that gives the balls their body and flavour.
Fine breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and bind the chopped sweetbreads so the balls hold their shape.
Cream
Moistens the soaked breadcrumbs, keeping the balls soft and tender.
Raw egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture together.

The step that matters

Rub the breadcrumbs smooth with cream. If the breadcrumbs are left lumpy or too dry, they will not blend evenly with the sweetbreads and the balls can crumble or cook unevenly. Smoothing them with cream gives a uniform, moist binder.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes