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Fricassee of Sweetbreads

A fricassee made with sweetbreads, eggs, cream, butter, parsley, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Fricassee of Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Wash the sweetbreads.

  2. Boil the sweetbreads for five minutes.

  3. Transfer the sweetbreads to ice-cold water.

  4. Slice the sweetbreads.

  5. Cover the sweetbreads with gravy.

  6. Stew the sweetbreads for 45 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the cream with a pinch of baking soda in another saucepan.

  2. Pour the heated cream over the eggs.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat and cook for one minute.

  4. Stir in the butter and parsley.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the contents of both saucepans.

  2. Stir the combined mixture well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a hot deep 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
The main ingredient, which becomes tender and moist when gently stewed in gravy.
Eggs
Set into the warm cream when gently heated, giving the sauce body and structure.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish to the sauce.
Gravy
Supplies the savoury liquid that the sweetbreads stew in and flavours the dish.

The step that matters

Returning the egg and cream mixture to the heat. Egg proteins set as they warm, so heating too hard or too long can curdle the mixture into grainy lumps. Keep the heat gentle and stir while it cooks.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, butter, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, butter, nutmeg, 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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