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Fried Brains

Fried brains are brains soaked, boiled, breaded, and fried, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fried Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the brains in salt water for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the membrane from the brains.

  3. Place the brains in cold water to cover them.

  4. Add carrot, turnip, onion, parsley, thyme, salt, and vinegar.

  5. Boil for 15 minutes, then drain and dry on a clean cloth.

Fry and serve

  1. In the morning, dip the brains in bread crumbs and beaten egg.

  2. Fry in smoking hot fat until golden brown.

  3. Serve on a hot dish with tomato sauce underneath and garnish with parsley.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
The main protein; cooking firms its delicate texture so it can be coated and fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat and protects the interior.
Beaten egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the brains so the coating holds during frying.
Vinegar
Acidity in the boiling liquid that helps firm the brains and mellows their flavor.

The step that matters

Fry in smoking hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns, and the brains can fall apart. A very hot fat sets the crumb crust quickly, sealing in moisture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, parsley, thyme, vinegar, bread, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, parsley, thyme, vinegar, bread, egg. 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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