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Stewed Sweetbreads

Stewed sweetbreads simmered in a butter‑flour‑milk sauce with mushrooms and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Stewed Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Parboil and blanch the sweetbreads, then let them cool.

  2. Cut the sweetbreads into small, uniform dice.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, make a white roux by melting the butter and stirring in the flour.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring until it bubbles.

Combine and serve

  1. Stir in the chopped mushrooms, sweetbread dice, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Set the saucepan in boiling water for five minutes 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the main body and tender, delicate texture of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce as its starch swells when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy, savory flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the hot milk to the roux. Pour the milk in gradually while stirring, so the flour disperses evenly without lumps. Stirring until it bubbles fully thickens the sauce and cooks out the raw flour taste.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, mushroom, 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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