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Chartreuse of Sweetbreads

A sweetbread dish braised with bacon, vegetables, and herbs, served with a tomato sauce and truffle garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chartreuse of Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Wash the sweetbreads.

  2. Blanch the sweetbreads until firm.

  3. Lard the sweetbreads with bacon.

  4. Combine sweetbreads, bacon, carrots, turnips, onions, and herbs in a saucepan.

  5. Cover with broth and braise.

  6. Glaze the sweetbreads until nicely browned.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil carrots and turnips in salted water until firm.

  2. Drain the carrots and turnips.

  3. Cut the carrots and turnips into pieces over 1 inch long.

  4. Cut the boiled carrots and turnips slantwise.

Assemble and bake the chartreuse

  1. Arrange them in a buttered border mold, alternating carrot and turnip strips.

  2. Fill the mold with mashed potatoes mixed with egg yolks and butter.

  3. Cover with buttered paper.

  4. Poach in a bain-marie until firm.

  5. Turn the border onto a hot dish.

  6. Fill the center with cooked mushrooms.

  7. Arrange the sweetbreads on top.

  8. Garnish with a skewer holding a button mushroom and a quenelle studded with truffles.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Mix cooking liquor with tomato sauce.

  2. Boil the mixture.

  3. Serve in a sauceboat with the chartreuse.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein, which becomes tender and firm when blanched and braised, then browned by glazing.
Egg yolks
Bind the mashed potatoes and enrich them, helping the mixture set firm when poached.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potatoes and keeps the mold surfaces from sticking.
Mashed potatoes
Form the set, soft base of the chartreuse that holds the vegetables and sweetbreads together.
Broth
Provides moisture for braising, keeping the sweetbreads tender while they cook.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savory depth to the cooking liquor for the finishing sauce.

The step that matters

Poaching the chartreuse in a bain-marie. The potato and egg yolk mixture sets as it heats. Gentle, even heat in a water bath keeps it smooth and firm; overheating can make the eggs curdle and the mixture grainy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, potato, egg, butter, sauce):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, potato, egg, butter, sauce. 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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