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Fricassee of Lamb-stones and Sweetbreads, Another Way

A fricassee of lamb stones, sweetbreads, and oysters in a buttery gravy with asparagus, wine, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and shallot work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 145 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: flour

Directions

Prepare the meats

  1. Blanch, parboil, and slice the lamb-stones.

  2. Flour the sweetbreads and cut thick ones in half.

Fry and simmer

  1. Fry the lamb-stones, sweetbreads, and oysters until golden brown.

  2. Pour off the butter and add the gravy, asparagus, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and shallots. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix a little gravy with the beaten egg yolks, then combine with the rest of the gravy. Return to the pan and stir until thickened without boiling.

  2. Garnish with lemon and serve hot.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lamb + shallottop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Asparagus + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together137 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the gravy into a smooth, rich sauce when gently heated.
Sweetbreads
Provide a tender, creamy texture that contrasts with the browned crust.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the fried meats and sauce.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours and becomes the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and sauce.
Butter
Browns the meats and adds richness to the frying.

The step that matters

Thicken without boiling. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they get too hot, so the sauce must be stirred over gentle heat and never boiled once the yolks are added.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, oyster, butter, asparagus, pepper, shallot, white wine):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, oyster, butter, asparagus, pepper, shallot, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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