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Fricassée of Lamb-stones and Sweetbreads, Another Way

A savory fricassée featuring lamb-stones, sweetbreads, oysters, and a wine and gravy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 137 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricassée of Lamb-stones and Sweetbreads, Another Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the lamb-stones, sweetbreads, and oysters together until golden brown.

  2. Pour off the butter and add the gravy, asparagus tops, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and shallots.

  3. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix a little gravy with the beaten egg yolks, then gradually combine with the rest of the gravy.

  2. Return the mixture to the pan and stir until thickened without boiling.

  3. Garnish with lemon 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. Asparagus + shallottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Nutmeg + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the gravy into a smooth, creamy sauce when gently heated.
Sweetbreads
Provide a tender, delicate texture once fried until golden.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the other ingredients.
Lamb-stones
Add a tender, rich meat texture once fried until golden brown.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the pan and stir until thickened without boiling. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the mixture boils, the proteins scramble and the sauce turns grainy and loses its smooth texture.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, oyster, asparagus, pepper, shallot, white wine, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, oyster, asparagus, pepper, shallot, white wine, egg. 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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