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Roasted Sweetbreads

Roasted sweetbreads stuffed with fat salt pork, served with mushroom gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,875 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓

Roasted Sweetbreads

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Parboil and blanch the sweetbreads until blood-warm.

  2. Sew each sweetbread in a piece of cloth, shaping it like an egg or pear.

  3. Place them between two plates with a weight on top and refrigerate for several hours.

  4. Remove the cloths and perforate each sweetbread in several places with a skewer.

  5. Insert a lardoon of fat salt pork into each sweetbread, with ends sticking out.

Roast

  1. Arrange the sweetbreads in a baking pan.

  2. Add 1 cup of weak stock to the pan.

  3. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven, basting 4-5 times.

  4. Transfer the sweetbreads to a hot dish and cover while you strain the gravy.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add a large spoonful of minced mushrooms to the gravy.

  2. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  3. Boil the gravy sharply.

  4. Season the gravy with pepper.

  5. Serve the gravy in a sauce boat, adding a spoonful on each sweetbread.

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. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  2. Cheese + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,735 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
The main protein, which becomes tender and creamy when parboiled, pressed and roasted.
Fat salt pork
Lardons melt during roasting, adding fat that keeps the sweetbreads moist and flavorful.
Browned flour
Starch that thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Minced mushrooms
Add savory, earthy depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Parboil and blanch the sweetbreads until blood-warm. Parboiling firms the membranes and sets the texture so the sweetbreads hold their shape when sewn, pressed and pierced, while blanching whitens them and removes residual blood for a cleaner flavor.

“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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