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Sweetbreads of Veal a-LA-Dauphine

Veal sweetbreads stuffed with bacon, anchovy, herbs, and egg yolks, simmered in a spiced gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Sweetbreads of Veal a-LA-Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Blanch the sweetbreads in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove the sweetbreads and allow them to cool.

  4. Stuff the sweetbreads with a mixture of bacon, anchovy, nutmeg, lemon peel, thyme, parsley, and egg yolks.

  5. Secure the stuffed sweetbreads with skewers.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, layer bacon seasoned with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, and onion. Add thin slices of veal.

  2. Add the stuffed sweetbreads.

  3. Cover the stewpan and cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes.

  4. Pour in boiling water and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the sweetbreads from the stewpan.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Reduce the gravy to ½ pint by boiling.

  4. Return the sweetbreads to the pan. Stew for 3 minutes.

  5. Serve the sweetbreads with the gravy poured over them. Garnish with lemon.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein; blanching firms the surface so the stuffed sweetbreads hold their shape while stewing.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing so it holds together inside the sweetbreads when cooked.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory smoky flavor that seasons the stew and the gravy.
Anchovy
Adds deep savory umami flavor to the stuffing without tasting distinctly fishy.
Veal (in the method)
Adds meaty body and richness to the stewed liquid and gravy.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stewing base.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 hours. A hard boil toughens proteins and can break apart the delicate sweetbreads, so keep the liquid at a gentle simmer for even, tender cooking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, anchovy, nutmeg, lemon, thyme, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, anchovy, nutmeg, lemon, thyme, parsley, pepper. 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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