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Fried Sweetbreads

Fried sweetbreads served with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Fried Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Parboil the sweetbreads as directed.

  2. Cut the parboiled sweetbreads into even-sized pieces.

  3. Sprinkle the pieces with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Bread and fry

  1. Dip the pieces first in beaten eggs.

  2. Dip the egg-coated pieces in bread or cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry the coated pieces in hot lard until browned on both sides.

  4. Place the browned sweetbreads on a platter.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove most of the fat from the pan, leaving 1 tablespoon.

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour into the hot fat until frothy.

  3. Gradually add 1 cup of milk while stirring continuously.

  4. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

  5. Cook the sauce for about 2 minutes.

  6. Strain the sauce.

  7. Pour the strained sauce over the sweetbreads.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 it so the pieces hold their shape while frying.
Eggs
Bind the crumbs to the sweetbreads so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust when fried in hot fat.
Flour
Cooks with the fat to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding body and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the roux. Adding the milk gradually while stirring constantly keeps the flour and fat blended smoothly. Adding it all at once can leave lumps in the sauce.

“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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