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Lamb's Sweetbreads

A stew of lamb sweetbreads with broth, onions, mace, butter, flour, eggs, cream, parsley, nutmeg, asparagus tops, and optional beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lamb's Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Blanch the sweetbreads and soak them in cold water for a while.

Stew

  1. In a stew-pan, combine sweetbreads, broth, pepper, salt, onions, and mace.

  2. Stir in butter and flour, then stew for 30 minutes.

Finish with the egg mixture

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with cream, parsley, and nutmeg.

  2. Add boiled asparagus tops to the stew, then stir in the egg mixture without boiling.

  3. Heat gently while stirring to avoid curdling.

  4. Optionally add boiled beans or peas before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein; blanching and soaking firm and whiten them before stewing.
Eggs
Thicken the sauce into a smooth, custard-like texture when gently heated.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour through the stew.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce with body.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, silkier texture to the egg mixture.
Asparagus tops
Add a fresh, green vegetable flavour and texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture in without boiling. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated, so the sauce turns grainy. Keep the stew hot but not boiling, and heat gently while stirring.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, onion, butter, flour, egg, cream):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, onion, butter, flour, egg, cream. 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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