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Sweetbread Salad

A salad of blanched sweetbreads served with mashed potatoes, macedoine of vegetables or green peas, and garnished with asparagus tips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweetbread Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Blanch the sweetbreads.

  2. Place them in a sauté pan with ½ pint of good stock for every four sweetbreads.

  3. Baste constantly until they are light brown and done.

Arrange and serve

  1. Arrange the sweetbreads in the center of a large circle of mashed potatoes.

  2. Fill the space between the sweetbreads and the potatoes with a macedoine of vegetables or green peas.

  3. Garnish with asparagus tips.

  4. Serve hot or cold.

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. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Potato + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Form the main protein; basting in stock gives them a light brown, savory crust.
Good stock
Provides liquid for basting, adding savory flavor and moisture as it reduces.
Mashed potatoes
Form a creamy base that cradles the sweetbreads and adds soft, mild body.
Macedoine of vegetables or green peas
Adds color, freshness and a light sweetness to fill the space around the sweetbreads.

The step that matters

Baste constantly until light brown and done. Frequent basting with stock transfers heat evenly and builds browning and flavor. Stopping early leaves them pale, while overcooking makes sweetbreads dry and firm.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, asparagus):

  1. Cauliflowerfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, asparagus. 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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