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Broiled Sweet Breads

Broiled sweetbreads served with buttered spring peas or spaghetti in tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broiled Sweet Breads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil sweetbreads in salted water for three minutes, then plunge into cold water and drain.

  2. Remove the enclosing membrane and slice lengthwise into half-inch slices.

Broil and serve

  1. Brush both sides with melted butter.

  2. Place in the broiler over a clear fire and toast until delicately brown.

  3. Serve surrounded with buttered spring peas or with spaghetti cooked in tomato sauce.

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. Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 slices hold their shape under heat.
Melted butter
Fat that carries heat to the surface, promoting even browning and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Broiling until delicately brown. Sweetbreads are delicate and can dry out or toughen under intense heat. Browning comes from surface heat, so watch closely and stop once golden rather than letting them scorch.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, sauce):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, sauce. 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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