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Sweetbread Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, corned ham, beef bones, sweetbreads, parsley, onion, tapioca, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sweetbread Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal into strips.

  2. Crack the bones.

  3. Mince the onion and parsley.

Make the broth

  1. Add onion and parsley to the cold water with the meat and bones.

  2. Cook slowly for 4 hours.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Set aside some bits of veal and ham for serving with rice.

  5. Place the remaining meat in a crock.

  6. Season the remaining meat well.

  7. Pour in half of the soup stock.

  8. Set aside in a cool place.

Finish the soup

  1. Season the remaining broth.

  2. Bring to a boil and skim.

  3. Add the sweetbreads.

  4. Cook for 30 minutes.

  5. Remove the sweetbreads.

  6. Place them in cold water.

  7. Add the soaked tapioca to the soup.

  8. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  9. Chop the sweetbreads.

  10. Return them to the soup.

  11. Boil for 1 minute 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Veal
Long slow simmering draws gelatin from the meat, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Beef bones
Release gelatin and marrow flavour during long cooking, adding body and depth to the broth.
Sweetbreads
Their delicate, tender texture and mild richness become the soft, luxurious element of the soup.
Tapioca
Starch that thickens the broth slightly, giving it a smoother body.
Corned ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that seasons the broth from within.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 4 hours. Gentle, sustained simmering extracts gelatin and flavour from the bones and meat without boiling hard, which would emulsify fats and cloud the broth.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, beef, onion, pepper):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, beef, onion, pepper. 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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