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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 and soak them in water for 2 hours.

  2. Scald them in boiling water with salt for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Place them on a plate and cover with another plate to cool.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the sweetbreads in butter until colored.

  2. Transfer them to a stewpan with chicken consommé, parsley, and mushrooms.

  3. Let them stew for 20 minutes, adding salt to taste.

  4. Serve with the sauce in an entrée dish.

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
Main ingredient; their tender, delicate texture is the centre of the dish.
Butter
Fat that browns the sweetbreads' surface, adding colour and rich flavour.
Chicken consommé
Liquid that gently stews the sweetbreads and forms the sauce.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and body to the sauce as they cook in the consommé.

The step that matters

Frying the sweetbreads in butter until colored. Browning needs enough heat and a dry surface; they were soaked and scalded, so they must be patted dry, or they will steam rather than brown, losing colour and flavour.

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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