Why it works: Pork and spinach are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,010 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Sweetbreads with Spinach
Ingredients
Directions
Lard the sweetbreads with seasoned strips of pork.
Arrange them in a braising pan with bacon, herbs, vegetables, and stock.
Cook until done, then remove the sweetbreads.
Serve on a bed of spinach puree, pouring the strained and skimmed braise over them.
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.
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Pork + spinachtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,010 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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