Name: Cervelles or Sweetbreads “en Matelote.”
Ingredients: sweetbreads or brains; ½ cup white wine; ½ cup water; vegetables (your choice, no vinegar); 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon flour; button mushrooms; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Cervelles or Sweetbreads “en Matelote.”

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the sweetbreads or brains as desired.
Cook them with white wine, water, and vegetables until done.
Strain the cooking stock through a fine sieve.

Make the sauce

In a pan, fry small onions in butter until golden.
Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir well.
Add the strained stock, mushrooms, pepper, and salt; simmer until cooked.

Serve

Warm the sweetbreads or brains in the sauce and serve.

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.

White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads or brains: Provide the tender, delicate meat that is the main element of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and flavour and helps the onions brown golden in the pan.
Flour: Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce when stirred with the onions and butter.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid for the sweetbreads or brains.
Button mushrooms: Add earthy flavour and body to the sauce as it simmers.

The step that matters

Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir well. If the flour is not stirred in thoroughly with the butter and onions, it forms lumps when the stock is added, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

“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.

Mushroom Soup60 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Cervelles or Sweetbreads “en Matelote.”