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Sweet-breads and Tomatoes

A dish of sweetbread simmered in a tomato sauce with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweet-breads and Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sweetbread

  1. Parboil the sweetbread until tender.

  2. Place it in a saucepan with water and season with salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.

Make the gravy and brown

  1. Thicken the gravy with browned flour and add butter.

  2. Let it stew for a few minutes, then transfer to a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown.

Serve

  1. Remove the sweetbread to a dish.

  2. Bring the tomato mixture to a boil.

  3. Pour over the sweetbread 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through parboiling and simmering.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the sweetbread instead of running off.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the gravy.
Stewed tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, giving the dish a bright, tangy sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with browned flour. Flour must be properly browned before it is added, since raw flour leaves a pasty taste and thickens unevenly. Adding it to simmering liquid while stirring prevents lumps and gives a smooth, cohesive gravy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, butter. 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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