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Curried Sweatbreads

A stew of veal sweetbreads simmered in a curry-flavored stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Curried Sweatbreads

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the veal sweetbreads into two-inch squares.

  2. In a stewpan, heat the white stock with the onion juice, curry powder, tarragon vinegar, and butter.

  3. Rub the butter with enough flour to thicken the sauce.

  4. Once boiling, stir in the sweetbreads and let them simmer gently for 30-33 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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + tarragontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tarragon + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together788 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal sweetbreads
Provide the main protein, whose tender texture softens further with gentle simmering.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries the curry flavour through the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the aromatic spice flavour that defines the dish.
White stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and cooks the sweetbreads gently.

The step that matters

Rub the butter with enough flour to thicken the sauce. Flour must be fully blended with the butter before it meets hot liquid, otherwise it clumps and the sauce turns lumpy instead of smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, tarragon, vinegar, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, tarragon, vinegar, butter, flour. 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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