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Small Cases of Scollops of Sweetbreads

Sweetbreads are cut into scallops, cooked with mushrooms, shallots, bacon, and butter, then served in paper cases with gravy and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Small Cases of Scollops of Sweetbreads

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 and parboil the sweetbreads, then cut them into small scallops.

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, combine the mushrooms, parsley, shallots, grated bacon, and butter.

  2. Season the scallops with pepper, salt, and mace, then stew everything over low heat.

  3. Once cooked, drain off the fat and place the scallops in small paper cases fried in olive oil.

Top and serve

  1. Top with chopped herbs and fried bread crumbs.

  2. Briefly place the paper cases in the oven at 300°F (150°C).

  3. Before serving, pour a little rich gravy and lemon juice into each case.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine sweetbreads
Provide the tender, delicate meat that forms the body of the scallops.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savoury flavour to the filling as they stew.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aromatic depth to the filling as they soften.
Fat bacon
Adds savoury richness and fat that carries flavour through the stewed filling.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stewing the scallops over low heat. Gentle heat keeps the sweetbreads tender and prevents the filling from drying out or toughening, since proteins seize and firm when cooked too fast.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, parsley, shallot, butter, pepper, olive, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, parsley, shallot, butter, pepper, olive, bread. 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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