Why it works: Onion and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
His De Veau-sweetbreads
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and blanch the sweetbreads.
Boil them until ready to eat.
Brown and serve
Dry the sweetbreads and brown them using a salamander.
Put a little glaze over the sweetbreads.
Serve with real gravy and either glazed onions or stewed mushrooms.
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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Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweetbreads
- Provide the main tender, delicate meat that the whole dish is built around.
- Glaze
- Adds sweetness and a glossy finish that promotes browning on the sweetbreads.
- Real gravy
- Adds moisture and savory depth to the sweetbreads on the plate.
The step that matters
Dry the sweetbreads before browning. Surface moisture steams the meat instead of letting it brown, so the sweetbreads must be patted dry before they go under the salamander.
“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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