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Larded Sweetbreads

Larded Sweetbreads are sweetbreads simmered with celery and bay leaf, then larded, dredged, baked, and served with hot peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Larded Sweetbreads

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim the fat from the sweetbreads and place them in a saucepan.

  2. Cover with boiling water, add celery and bay leaf, and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from water and place in cold water for 10 minutes to blanch.

  4. Remove from cold water, discard loose fat and objectionable parts.

Bake and serve

  1. Lard the sweetbreads and place them in a baking dish.

  2. Dredge with salt, pepper, and flour.

  3. Cover the bottom of the pan with stock or water.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.

  5. When done, place on a platter and arrange hot peas around them, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Celery + peastop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Main protein; blanching firms them so they hold their shape while baking.
Flour
Dry coating that helps the surface brown and lightly thickens the pan juices.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the peas served alongside the sweetbreads.

The step that matters

Blanching in cold water. Moving the sweetbreads from hot water to cold water for 10 minutes firms their texture and makes the loose membranes and fat easier to remove, so they bake up firm rather than soft.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, flour, butter. 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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