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Curried Sweetbreads

A stew of sweetbreads simmered in curried gravy with onion, lemon juice or chili vinegar, optionally fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curried Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Wash and soak the sweetbreads, then place them in boiling water with a little salt and the whole onion.

  2. Simmer for 10 minutes, or use weak veal broth instead of water.

  3. Remove the sweetbreads and let them cool completely on a drainer.

  4. Cut the cooled sweetbreads into half‑inch slices.

Stew and serve

  1. Optionally, flour and fry the slices lightly in butter, or place them in curried gravy to cover.

  2. For added flavor, stew grated coconut in the gravy before adding the sweetbreads.

  3. Stew the sweetbreads gently in the gravy for 20 to 30 minutes.

  4. Add lemon juice or chili vinegar to taste before serving 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. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + coconuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,831 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Lemon + coconuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Main protein; tender, mild meat that absorbs the flavor of the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns the floured slices when frying.
Curried gravy
Forms the sauce that carries flavor and moisture through the stew.
Lemon juice or chili vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and sweetbreads.

The step that matters

Simmer the sweetbreads gently in the gravy. Vigorous boiling toughens the delicate sweetbread membranes and can break the slices apart. A gentle simmer keeps them tender and intact while they absorb the curry flavor.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, lemon):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Coconutthe original
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, lemon. 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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