Skip to main content
Main

Fricassee of Lamb-stones and Sweetbreads, Another Way

A fricassee of lamb-stones, sweetbreads, oysters, and asparagus in a buttery wine gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Fricassee of Lamb-stones and Sweetbreads, Another Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Flour the sweetbreads and cut thick ones in half.

Cook

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

  2. Pour off the butter.

  3. Add the gravy, asparagus, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and shallots.

  4. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

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

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

  3. Garnish with lemon and serve hot.

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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 heated gently without boiling.
Butter
Carries the frying of the meats and adds richness, then is poured off before the sauce.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the meats and asparagus.
Sweetbreads
Provide the tender, delicate meat that is the main body of the dish.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and tender texture when fried.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg yolks. Egg yolks set when they get too hot and can curdle or scramble if the sauce boils. Adding a little warm gravy first tempers them, and stirring gently until thickened keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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

You might also like

Asparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesAsparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipesBoiled AsparagusBoiled Asparagus27 recipes