Why it works: Artichoke and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Sweetbread Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Lay puff pastry at the bottom of a deep dish.
Put the force-meat around the sides of the dish.
Cut sweetbreads and lay them in first.
Add artichoke bottoms, cocks' combs, truffles, morels, asparagus tops, and fresh mushrooms.
Add hard-boiled egg yolks and force-meat balls.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Almost fill the pie with water, cover it, and bake for 2 hours.
When done, pour in rich veal gravy and thicken with cream and flour.
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.
-
Artichoke + asparagustop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together165 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,900 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Asparagus + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together400 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Artichoke + mushroomtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together447 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 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
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, truffle, mushroom, egg, meat, pepper, veal):
- Asparagusthe original
- Shallotfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Chivefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, truffle, mushroom, egg, meat, pepper, veal. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More sweetbread pie recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Asparagus Soup179 recipes
Asparagus Salad77 recipes
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Artichoke Soup55 recipes