Name: Sweetbread Axd Mushrooom Pates
Ingredients: 10 sweetbreads, parboiled and fat removed, cut into small pieces; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 can French mushrooms, sliced thin; 1 teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon powdered mace; 2 tablespoons butter (size of a guinea egg); 1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch

Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Sweetbread Axd Mushrooom Pates

Ingredients

10 sweetbreads, parboiled and fat removed, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 can French mushrooms, sliced thin
1 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon powdered mace
2 tablespoons butter (size of a guinea egg)
1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

Make the filling

In a pot, combine sweetbreads, salt, mushrooms, pepper, mace, and butter.
Simmer slowly for 20 minutes.
Dredge sweetbreads with cornstarch and mix well.
Bring to a boil, stirring to prevent sticking.

Serve

Serve in pâté shells.

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.

Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 main meaty bulk and tender texture of the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the filling stay soft and savoury.
Cornstarch: Thickens the cooking liquid so the filling holds together as a pâté.
French mushrooms: Add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Bringing to a boil while stirring. Cornstarch thickens only once it heats and gelatinises, and it settles on the bottom of a pot quickly. Constant stirring prevents scorching and sticking while the mixture thickens evenly.

Swap the mace

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

Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Nutmegfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, butter, egg. 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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Sweetbread Axd Mushrooom Pates