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Cervelles or Sweetbreads “en Matelote.”

Sweetbreads simmered in a white wine and water stock with vegetables, then served in a mushroom and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 the sweetbreads

  1. Prepare the sweetbreads as needed.

  2. Cook them with white wine, water, and vegetables until done.

  3. Strain the cooking stock through a fine sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, fry small onions in butter until golden.

  2. Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir.

  3. Add the strained stock, mushrooms, salt, and pepper.

  4. Simmer until cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Warm the sweetbreads 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.

  1. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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
The main protein, which becomes tender and delicate when gently cooked in liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid and the finished sauce.
Butter
Provides fat and flavor, and browns the onions for depth in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the stock, giving it body.
Button mushrooms
Contribute savory flavor and a soft texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the butter and onions. Flour must be stirred into the butter and onions so it coats evenly, then the stock added gradually. This prevents lumps, and simmering cooks out the raw floury taste while the starch thickens the sauce.

“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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