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Sweetbreads Stewed with Oysters

A stew of sweetbreads and oysters flavored with veal gravy, butter, flour, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Sweetbreads Stewed with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak and blanch the sweetbreads, then quarter them.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, combine the sweetbreads, veal gravy, oyster liquor, and salt.

  2. In another stewpan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to thicken.

  3. Add the thickened butter mixture to the sweetbreads and cook until tender.

  4. Add the oysters and cook until heated through.

  5. Just before serving, stir in the heavy cream.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Veal + oystertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together988 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the tender, rich meat that forms the body of the stew.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Veal gravy
Supplies savory depth and liquid for the stew.
Oysters
Add briny, savory flavor and a delicate texture to the stew.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the thickened butter mixture. Flour must be cooked in the butter so it thickens smoothly without lumps or a raw starchy taste. Adding the roux to hot liquid while stirring keeps the sauce evenly thickened.

“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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