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Sweetbreads and Oysters

A savory stew of sweetbreads and oysters cooked in butter, gravy, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sweetbreads and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak and blanch the sweetbreads for 1 hour, then cut into ¾ inch cubes, removing skin and pipes.

  2. Drain and wash the oysters thoroughly, then drain again.

Make the stew

  1. In an agate stew pan, bring the oyster liquor to a boil and skim carefully.

  2. Add the sweetbread cubes to the boiling liquor.

  3. Cut the butter into small pieces, roll each in flour, and add to the pan along with the gravy.

  4. Simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes until the sweetbreads are tender.

  5. Stir in the cream, salt, and red pepper to taste, then add the drained oysters.

  6. Stir gently until the edges of the oysters curl, then serve immediately on toast.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provide the tender, delicate meat that forms the body of the stew.
Oysters
Add briny flavor, and their edges curl as they cook, signaling doneness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and rolling it in flour helps thicken the stew.
Flour
Coats the butter pieces so they thicken the stew as they melt.
Veal or chicken gravy
Adds savory depth and body to the stewing liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Stir gently until the oysters' edges curl. Oysters toughen and shrink quickly when overcooked, so they should be added near the end and cooked only briefly until just set.

“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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