Name: Sweetbreads a LA Daube
Ingredients: 2 or 3 large sweetbreads; 1 lemon; some veal gravy; stewed celery

Why it works: Lemon and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sweetbreads a LA Daube

Ingredients

2 or 3 large sweetbreads
1 lemon
some veal gravy
stewed celery

Directions

Prepare

Blanch the sweetbreads.
Lard the sweetbreads.

Cook and serve

Place them in a stewpan with veal gravy and a little browning.
Serve with stewed celery.

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.

Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + vealtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,336 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads: The main protein; it turns tender and rich as it cooks slowly in the gravy.
Veal gravy: Provides moisture and savoury depth for the sweetbreads to cook in.