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Sweetbreads a LA Vigo

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,562 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweetbreads a LA Vigo

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the sweetbreads in lukewarm water and wash them well.

  2. Place the sweetbreads in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil, then remove the sweetbreads and rinse in cold water.

  4. Cook the sweetbreads in 2 cups of weak white stock or water with the skinned onion and salt.

  5. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  6. Remove the sweetbreads and set aside to cool.

  7. Embed a dozen small horse-shoe moulds in ice.

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

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

  2. Lamb + lettucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Lamb + truffletop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  5. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, truffle, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, truffle, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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