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Sweetbreads with Veal and Ham

Sweetbreads stuffed with forcemeat, topped with ham, veal, bacon, and baked, served with bechamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sweetbreads with Veal and Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Blanch heart sweetbreads for 8 minutes.

  2. Wash and dry the sweetbreads.

  3. Remove a piece from the underside of a sweetbread.

  4. Pound the removed piece with a small amount of light forcemeat.

  5. Fill the cavity in the sweetbread with the forcemeat.

Layer and bake

  1. Rub the top of the sweetbread with egg white.

  2. Lay a thin slice of lean ham on top of the sweetbread.

  3. Lay a thin slice of veal on top of the ham.

  4. Lay a bard of bacon on top of the veal.

  5. Cover the sweetbread with paper.

  6. Cover the paper with a thin sheet of common paste.

  7. Bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the paste and paper before serving.

  2. Glaze the bacon lightly.

  3. Serve with a good bechamel sauce underneath.

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. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Veal + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Egg + vealtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,845 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Heart sweetbreads
Provide the tender main meat, which becomes soft and creamy when gently cooked.
Light forcemeat
Fills the cavity with a moist, tender stuffing that keeps the sweetbread juicy.
Egg white
Binds the layers together so the ham and veal stick to the sweetbread.
Bard of bacon
Adds fat that bastes the meat and browns and flavours the surface as it cooks.
Bechamel sauce
Adds a smooth, creamy base that complements the rich meats.

The step that matters

Bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour. Low, gentle heat cooks the sweetbread through without toughening its delicate proteins, keeping it tender and moist inside the paste wrapping.

“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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