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Sweetbreads Braised and Larded

Braised sweetbreads larded with salt pork, bacon, and spices, served with a rich consommé sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweetbreads Braised and Larded

6 sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak sweetbreads in cold water and vinegar for 1 hour.

  2. Remove veins and cords, keeping sweetbreads whole.

  3. Lard the side that will be on top.

Braise

  1. Place bacon slices in a hot stewpan that fits in the oven.

  2. Lay sweetbreads on top of bacon, larding side up.

  3. Add onion, bay leaf, spices, garlic, pepper, salt, and strips of ham.

  4. Pour in sherry.

  5. Add just enough consommé to cover sweetbreads.

  6. Cover tightly.

  7. Stew gently for 30 to 45 minutes.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan.

  2. Stir in flour until browned.

  3. Stir in a little sauce and add to the saucepan.

  4. Boil to thicken.

  5. If gravy is not rich enough, boil rapidly for a few minutes.

  6. Adjust seasoning.

  7. Add more wine if needed.

  8. If gravy is not thick enough, blend a little corn starch with cold water.

  9. Boil for 3 minutes.

  10. Optionally, add mushrooms to the strained sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Uncover the sweetbreads.

  2. Place them in the oven, basting frequently.

  3. Remove sweetbreads and ham.

  4. Place them on a hot dish.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein; gentle stewing keeps them tender and moist while they absorb flavour.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pan, adding savoury richness to the braising liquid and sweetbreads.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and gravy.
Consommé
Braising liquid that gives the sweetbreads and gravy a concentrated savoury base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with butter and sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the roux that forms the gravy base.

The step that matters

Stew gently and cover tightly. Gentle, covered stewing keeps the sweetbreads tender and moist. Boiling vigorously toughens their proteins and dries the surface, so the heat must stay low and steady.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, clove, allspice, pepper, ham, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, clove, allspice, pepper, ham, sherry. 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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