Why it works: Sorrel and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 231 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sweetbreads
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the sorrel in several waters, then drain.
Boil the sorrel in 1 quart of water with a little salt for 15 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.
Drain the sorrel through a fine sieve, chop it finely, and place it in a saucepan.
Add 1 oz of butter and 1 oz of flour to the sorrel, stirring over heat for a few minutes.
Gradually pour in 1 breakfast cup of broth and stir for 20 minutes.
Beat 3 eggs with ½ teacup of milk, then mix with the sorrel and stir quickly over heat for 5 minutes.
Transfer the sorrel to a hot dish and smooth it out.
Drain the sweetbreads and arrange them on the dish of sorrel.
If the sauce is too thick, mix in a little more broth, boil, and serve in a sauceboat with the sweetbreads.
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.
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Sorrel + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together231 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the sorrel
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Sorrelthe original
- Capersfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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