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Sweetbreads with Tomato Gravy

Sweetbreads simmered in a tomato gravy with browned flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Sweetbreads with Tomato Gravy

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 and boil

  1. Season sweetbreads with black pepper to taste.

  2. Boil sweetbreads for 30 minutes.

Make the gravy

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

  2. Let it stew for a few minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown.

  2. Remove sweetbreads to a dish.

  3. Pour in less than a pint of stewed tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, and bring to a boil.

  4. Pour over the sweetbreads 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
The main protein, firmed by boiling before it is browned in the oven.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the gravy.
Stewed tomatoes
Provide acidity and moisture that give the gravy its tangy flavor.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy. Browned flour must be stirred in evenly and stewed for a few minutes so its starch swells fully and the gravy thickens smoothly without raw, floury lumps or taste.

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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