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To Roast Sweet-breads

Roasted sweetbreads glazed with egg and breadcrumbs, served with veal gravy flavored with lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Roast Sweet-breads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the sweetbreads and parboil them.

  2. Place them in a pan of cold water until cool, then dry with a cloth.

  3. Melt and skim the butter in a saucepan over hot coals until clear.

Coat and roast

  1. Skewer each sweetbread and secure them on a spit.

  2. Glaze the sweetbreads with beaten egg and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Spread some clarified butter on top and add another layer of crumbs.

  4. Roast in front of a clear fire for at least 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Prepare veal gravy flavored with lemon juice and pour it around the sweetbreads 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Bread + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein; parboiling firms them so they hold their shape during roasting.
Butter
Clarified butter adds richness and helps the crumb coating brown in the heat.
Beaten egg
Acts as a glue so the bread crumbs adhere to the sweetbreads.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust during roasting.
Veal gravy
Adds savory moisture and body to the dish as a sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and butter.

The step that matters

Roast in front of a clear fire. Sweetbreads must roast over steady, clear heat so the crumb crust browns evenly without scorching or drying the delicate interior.

“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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