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To Roast Sweet-breads

Roasted sweetbreads glazed with egg and breadcrumbs, served with veal gravy and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Roast Sweet-breads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the sweetbreads and parboil them.

  2. Place them in cold water until cool, then dry them.

  3. Melt butter in a saucepan over hot coals and skim it until clear.

  4. Skewer each sweetbread and fasten them on a spit.

Roast and serve

  1. Glaze with beaten egg and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Spread clarified butter over them and add another coat of crumbs.

  3. Roast before a clear fire for at least 15 minutes.

  4. Serve with veal gravy flavored with lemon juice poured around.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Bread + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the tender, delicate meat that is the main component of the dish.
Beaten egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the surface so the coating holds during roasting.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when roasted over the sweetbreads.
Butter
Carries heat and fat across the surface, promoting browning and a rich flavor.
Veal gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth to the sweetbreads when served.

The step that matters

Drying after cooling. Wet sweetbreads will steam instead of browning, and surface moisture stops the egg and crumbs from adhering. Drying them thoroughly before skewering helps the coating crisp.

“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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