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Sweetbreads, Cardinal Fashion

Sweetbreads stuffed with lobster, mushrooms, and sauces, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sweetbreads, Cardinal Fashion

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the sweetbreads in white stock until done, then cut them into ½ inch slices.

  2. Add one-third the amount of sliced lobster and some sliced mushrooms.

  3. Prepare a veloute cream sauce and mix in one-sixth part of thickly reduced tomato sauce.

  4. Season to taste and finish with lobster butter.

  5. Combine the sweetbreads, lobster, and mushrooms, then fill shells with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and melted butter.

  2. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely colored.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the tender, meaty main body of the filling.
Sliced lobster
Adds sweet, rich seafood flavor to the filling.
Sliced mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Veloute cream sauce
Binds the filling together and adds a creamy, moist texture.
Thickly reduced tomato sauce
Adds concentrated acidity and color to the cream sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely colored. The brisk oven heat browns the bread crumbs and melted butter through the Maillard reaction. Baking too gently leaves the topping pale and soft, while overbaking can dry the filling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, mushroom, cream, sauce, butter, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, mushroom, cream, sauce, butter, bread. 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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