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Lamb's Stones, and Sweetbreads

A stew of parboiled and sliced lamb stones and sweetbreads with gravy, asparagus tops, egg yolks, pistachios and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 80 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Lamb's Stones, and Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch the lamb stones, then parboil them.

  2. Slice the lamb stones.

  3. Cut the sweetbreads in half if thick.

Cook

  1. Fry the egg yolks, pistachio kernels, and oysters until golden brown.

  2. Pour off the butter.

  3. Add gravy, lamb stones, asparagus tops, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and shallots.

  4. Stew for 10 minutes.

  5. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs with a little white wine and mace.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir the egg mixture into the mixture until thick.

  2. Serve garnished with lemon.

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. Pistachio + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

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

  4. Pistachio + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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

Lamb stones
Provides the main meaty bite, which becomes tender after blanching and parboiling.
Sweetbreads
Adds a soft, creamy texture that contrasts with the crisp fried elements.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set when stirred into the hot mixture, adding richness.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients stew in, adding savory depth.
Oysters
Fry to a golden brown, adding a briny, savory note and a crisp edge.
Asparagus tops
Add a fresh, green flavour and a tender-crisp texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the hot mixture until thick. Egg proteins thicken the sauce as they gently set. If the mixture is too hot or the eggs go in too fast, the yolks scramble and the sauce turns grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the pistachio

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Pistachiothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, egg, oyster, butter, asparagus, nutmeg, pepper. 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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