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Salad

Moulded Sweetbreads and Cucumber Salad

A chilled salad of diced sweetbreads, cucumber, and cream, set in molds and served on lettuce with dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Moulded Sweetbreads and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Simmer sweetbreads in boiling salted water with bay leaf, onion, and mace for 20 minutes.

  2. Cool and cut sweetbreads into dice; you should have about ¾ cup.

Make the mould

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water, then dissolve in boiling water.

  2. Add lemon juice and beaten cream to the gelatin mixture.

  3. Stir in sweetbread cubes, cucumber cubes, and season with salt and paprika.

  4. Turn mixture into molds, chill, and serve on lettuce leaves with dressing.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the main body and tender texture of the salad.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when unmoulded.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when beaten thick.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream and sweetbreads.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin fully before adding the other ingredients. Gelatin only sets when fully dissolved in hot liquid; undissolved granules leave lumps and weak spots, so the mould may not hold its shape.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, gelatin, lemon, cream, cucumber, lettuce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, gelatin, lemon, cream, cucumber, lettuce. 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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