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Lamb Sweetbreads

Lamb sweetbreads simmered in consommé with mushrooms and parsley, then fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Lamb Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the lamb sweetbreads.

  2. Soak the sweetbreads in water for 2 hours.

  3. Scald the sweetbreads in boiling water with a little salt for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Place the sweetbreads on a plate and cover them with another plate to cool.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the sweetbreads in butter until colored.

  2. Transfer the sweetbreads to a stewpan with chicken consommé, chopped parsley, and mushrooms.

  3. Let the sweetbreads stew for 20 minutes.

  4. Add salt to taste.

  5. Serve with the sauce.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Lamb + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together626 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb sweetbreads
Their soft, delicate texture becomes tender and creamy when gently cooked and stewed.
Butter
Fat that browns the sweetbreads' surface and adds rich flavor.
Chicken consommé
Liquid that gently cooks the sweetbreads and forms the base of the sauce.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a tender bite to the stewed dish.

The step that matters

Scalding the sweetbreads. Brief boiling in salted water firms the delicate tissue so it holds together during frying and stewing. Boiling too long can make the sweetbreads tough and cause them to break apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, butter, chicken, mushroom):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, chicken, mushroom. 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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