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Stewed Sweet-breads

A stew of sweetbreads, bacon, carrots, onions, and cloves, simmered in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stewed Sweet-breads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the sweetbreads in tepid salt water for a while.

  2. Place them in a stewing pan and pour boiling water over them until they turn white and firm.

  3. Transfer the sweetbreads to cold water.

Stew

  1. Baste the sweetbreads with butter and add them to the stew pan with bacon, carrots, onions, and cloves.

  2. Add ¼ cup of water and cover the pan.

  3. Cook for about 45 minutes, then remove the sweetbreads and strain the gravy over them.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
The main protein; blanching firms them so they hold their shape during stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the sweetbreads when basted.
Bacon
Releases fat and savory flavor into the stew pan.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the gravy as they cook.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and sweetness to the gravy as they soften.

The step that matters

Blanching the sweetbreads in boiling water. Pouring boiling water over them until they turn white and firm sets the surface proteins so they hold their shape during stewing. Overcooking at this point can make them tough, so watch for the color change and firmness rather than a fixed time.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, onion. 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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