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Fried Sweetbread

Fried sweetbread is a dish of blanched calf heart sweetbread, simmered, sliced, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Fried Sweetbread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbread

  1. Blanch the sweetbread as in the recipe for boiled sweetbread.

  2. Place the sweetbread in a saucepan with enough second stock to cover it.

  3. Simmer for about 40 minutes until tender.

  4. Remove the sweetbread and place it on a plate.

  5. Press it with another plate to flatten.

  6. Once cold, cut the sweetbread into slices.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the slices in beaten egg.

  2. Coat the slices with breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the slices gently in melted butter until golden brown, or in boiling fat if preferred.

  4. Drain the slices well.

Serve

  1. Serve on a dish garnished with fried parsley.

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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbread
Main protein; simmering in stock makes it tender and mild.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumbs to the slices so the coating adheres during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp golden coating that browns when fried.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Fry the slices gently. Breadcrumb coatings brown quickly, so over-high heat can scorch the outside before the centre is hot. Gentle heat browns the coating evenly while keeping the slices moist.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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