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Fricassee of Lambstones

A fricassee made with lambstones, sweetbreads, oysters, and a buttery gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 Lambstones

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch, parboil, and slice the lambstones.

  2. Flour the sweetbreads, cutting them in half if thick.

Cook and thicken

  1. Fry the lambstones, sweetbreads, and oysters until golden brown.

  2. Pour off the butter and add 2 cups of gravy, asparagus tops, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and shallots.

  3. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Mix a little gravy with the beaten egg yolks, then gradually combine with the pan mixture.

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

  6. Garnish with lemon before serving.

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. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the gravy into a smooth, creamy sauce when heated gently.
Flour
Flour coats the meats, helping them brown and giving a light crust.
Butter
Butter carries the frying and adds richness and browning to the meats.
Good gravy
Gravy forms the liquid base of the sauce and supplies most of its savory flavour.
Oysters
Oysters add a briny, savory flavour when fried alongside the meats.

The step that matters

Return to the pan and stir until thickened without boiling. Egg yolks begin to scramble and curdle if they get too hot, so the sauce must be held just below boiling while it thickens.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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.

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