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Mayonnaise of Sweetbreads

A savory dish of sweetbreads simmered in veal stock, topped with mayonnaise and garnished with beetroot, hard‑boiled egg, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Mayonnaise of Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Blanch and boil the sweetbreads in veal stock for a few minutes.

  2. Cool the sweetbreads.

  3. Cut the sweetbreads into small round pieces.

Make the gravy

  1. Combine the sweetbreads with pepper, salt, mace, garlic, and veal stock in a stewpan.

  2. Add the gelatine.

  3. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Set and finish

  1. Place the sweetbread pieces in a shallow dish.

  2. Pour the gravy over them.

  3. Allow to set firmly.

  4. Cover with mayonnaise.

  5. Garnish with beetroot, hard-boiled egg shapes, and fresh herbs.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Garlic + beetroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + beetroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together285 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the main meat texture, becoming tender through gentle simmering in stock.
Veal stock
Supplies savoury body and moisture that becomes the gravy around the sweetbreads.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the cooled gravy so the sweetbread pieces hold together in a firm mass.
Mayonnaise
Adds a rich fatty layer and creamy texture over the set sweetbreads.

The step that matters

Allow to set firmly. Gelatine only sets when the gravy is fully chilled and undisturbed; cutting or serving too early leaves the mass soft and loose.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, clove, garlic, beetroot, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, clove, garlic, beetroot, 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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