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Sweetbreads, Vol-Au-Vent Of
Soak two large fine sweetbreads in water for a couple of hours. Boil them quickly for ten minutes, and throw them into cold water. When cool, dry them perfectly, cut them into small pieces, and dredge flour upon them. Melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan, put in the pieces of sweetbread, and add the third of a pint of white stock, the strained juice of a lemon, two table-spoonfuls of sherry or Madeira, a bunch of sweet herbs, the thin rind of half a lemon, half a blade of mace, two cloves, and a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Let the sauce boil up once, skim it, and let the sweetbreads simmer gently until done enough. Take them up, strain the sauce, and mix with it gradually the yolks of two eggs beaten up with four table-spoonfuls of cream. Stir the sauce over the fire for a minute or two, but do not let it boil. Make a vol-au-vent case four inches in diameter (see VOL-AU-VENT). Bake it until done enough, scoop out the centre, and fill it with the mince. Serve the vol-au-vent very hot on a neatly-folded napkin. This dish will be much improved if a few mushrooms and browned potatoes are added to the preparation. Clean and skin eighteen or twenty button mushrooms, put them into a saucepan, cover with boiling water, and add the strained juice of a lemon and a little salt. Let them boil quickly for ten or twelve minutes. Make a dozen small balls of mashed potatoes, dip these in egg, and make them hot in the oven. Fill the vol-au-vent case (which, if the mushrooms and potatoes are added, will need to be six inches in diameter) with layers of sweetbread, potato balls, and mushrooms. Pour the sauce over all, and serve.
A Victorian ragoût of veal sweetbreads bound with an egg-and-cream liaison and served in a puff pastry case. Most of it translates directly; the sauce and the mushrooms need a modern hand.
- The hinge: the liaisonOnce the beaten yolks and cream go in, the sauce must not boil or it will scramble and break. Hold it below a simmer, around 175-180F, stirring until it coats the back of a spoon.
- SweetbreadsTwo glands are sold under the name: the throat sweetbread (thymus) and the plumper 'heart' or stomach sweetbread (pancreas), the latter generally the better; order from a butcher a few days ahead. After the ten-minute blanch and cold plunge, peel away the outer membrane and any tubes or fat before cutting them up — the book takes this as understood.
- SoakingTwo hours in cold water draws out blood and is the minimum; changing the water two or three times, or soaking overnight in the refrigerator, gives a paler, cleaner result. Keep it cold, not at room temperature.
- MeasuresA third of a pint in the imperial pint used here is about 6 2/3 fl oz, roughly 190 ml (a scant cup less a couple of tablespoons). White stock means an unbrowned veal or chicken stock. A blade of mace is one strip of the dried nutmeg husk; a scant 1/4 teaspoon of ground mace stands in.
- "Until done enough"Cut into small pieces and gently simmered, the sweetbreads need about 10-15 minutes; they should be tender and set through, not squeaky. Overcooking turns them grainy.
- The mushroomsTen or twelve minutes of hard boiling will leave button mushrooms limp and washed out. Three to four minutes in the acidulated water is enough to keep them white and firm.
- The pastry casePuff pastry needs a hot oven — 425F for the first 15 minutes to get the lift, then down to 375F to dry the interior, 30-40 minutes in all for a six-inch case. Bought all-butter puff works; bake the case while the sweetbreads simmer and fill it at the last moment or the base goes soft.
- YieldTwo large sweetbreads with the potato balls and mushrooms fill a six-inch case and serve four as a first course, or two or three as a light main.
Sweetbreads were among the most prized offal in nineteenth-century English cookery, ranked with brains and calf's head as delicate "white" meats fit for invalids and for company alike, and Cassell's treats them at length. The vol-au-vent — French for "flight in the wind", a name generally traced to the lightness of the puff pastry case — came into English kitchens with the French-trained chefs of the Regency and after, and by the 1880s it was standard entrée equipment in many households with pretensions. The egg-yolk-and-cream finish here is the classic liaison, the same thickening used for blanquette de veau and one of the reasons sweetbread dishes read as luxurious: a pale sauce enriched at the end and stirred over the fire for a minute or two. The optional mushrooms and egg-glazed potato balls are pure garnish in the period manner, built for the look of the layered case as much as the taste.