Why it works: Lemon and mango match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Curried Sweetbreads
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and soak the sweetbreads as usual.
Place them in boiling water with a little coarse sea salt and a whole onion; simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from water and let cool completely on a drainer.
Cut the sweetbreads into half-inch slices.
Optionally, flour and fry the slices lightly in butter, or place them in enough curried gravy to cover.
Stew gently in the gravy for 20 to 30 minutes.
Add lemon juice or chili vinegar to taste.
Serve the curry hot, optionally garnished with Indian pickled mango.
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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Lemon + mangotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together302 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Onion + mangotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together682 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + mangotop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together283 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mango
The recipe marks mango as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, lemon):
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Mangothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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