Skip to main content
Main

Roast Sweetbreads

Roasted sweetbreads with veal stock, butter, and fat pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Roast Sweetbreads

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Parboil the sweetbreads, then blanch them in cold water.

  2. Drain and pierce three or four holes in each sweetbread.

  3. Insert strips of fat salt pork into the holes, allowing them to project half an inch on each side.

Roast

  1. Place the sweetbreads in a roasting pan and pour the weak veal stock over them.

  2. Rub the sweetbreads with melted butter.

  3. Cover and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

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. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 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; parboiling and blanching firm it and whiten it before roasting.
Fat salt pork
Fat strips that melt into the sweetbreads, adding moisture and rich flavour during baking.
Weak veal stock
Liquid in the pan that adds moisture and savoury flavour as the sweetbreads bake covered.
Melted butter
Fat that coats the surface, promoting browning and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Parboil and blanch before roasting. Parboiling firms the delicate sweetbread membranes so they hold their shape when pierced and stuffed, and cold blanching helps whiten them and keeps the texture clean before baking.

“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.

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes