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Broiled Sweetbreads with Stuffed Tomatoes
Broil the sweetbreads after crumbing, then serve on a hot platter with a circle of stuffed tomatoes around them. A hearty dish for lunch or Sunday supper may be made by arranging a mound of boiled macaroni in the centre of the platter with the sweetbreads on top, with the tomatoes as a border. For this dish the sweetbreads may be either broiled, sauted, or stewed, and the macaroni may be cooked the day before and heated in the oven while the tomatoes are baking.
This is an assembly note rather than a full recipe: it assumes you already know how to bring a sweetbread to the crumbing stage, which is where nearly all the work lies.
- The hinge: sweetbreads must be prepared before they are crumbedRaw sweetbreads cannot go straight to the broiler. Soak them in several changes of cold water for an hour or two until they lose their pink, then blanch 3-5 minutes in salted water with a splash of lemon or vinegar, cool, peel away the outer membrane and any tubes, and press between two plates under a weight until firm and flat. Only then are they ready to crumb.
- "After crumbing"Period cookbooks commonly direct dipping the pressed sweetbread in beaten egg and then fine dry breadcrumbs; a preliminary dusting of seasoned flour appears in some but not all. Brush generously with melted butter before broiling or the crumbs scorch dry.
- BroilingA period broiler was a rack over coals or under a gas flame. Use a modern broiler on high with the rack about 4 inches from the element, 3-4 minutes a side, turning once, until the crumbs are deep gold. A short blanch firms the sweetbread but does not cook it through, so make sure the centre is hot and no longer pink before serving.
- Which sweetbread to buyVeal is what the book means: the thymus (throat sweetbread) and the pancreas (the so-called heart sweetbread). It is a special order from most butchers now; count on 1 to 1 1/2 lb for four people. Lamb sweetbreads are smaller and cook faster.
- Stuffed tomatoesNo temperature is given. Hollowed tomatoes filled with buttered crumbs bake well at 375F for 20-25 minutes, which is long enough to soften without collapsing them into the platter.
- Reheating the macaroniThe suggestion to boil macaroni a day ahead works if you toss it with butter or a little cream before it goes into the oven; undressed cold macaroni dries into strings. Cover it and give it 15-20 minutes at 375F alongside the tomatoes.
- Timing the platterBake tomatoes and macaroni first, hold them warm, and broil the sweetbreads last. Crumbed sweetbreads lose their crispness within a few minutes of leaving the heat.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. On the 1 to 1 1/2 lb suggested above, about four servings for lunch; the macaroni version will stretch the same sweetbreads further.
Sweetbreads were a fashionable and comparatively expensive item on American hotel and club menus from the 1880s through the 1920s, and household compilations of the period carry many ways to serve them: creamed, in patty shells, larded and braised, and crumbed and broiled as here. The origin of the name is not settled: 'sweet' is usually explained as distinguishing the mild gland from stronger offal, and 'bread' is often traced to an old English word for flesh or roast meat, but both explanations are traditional rather than proven. The macaroni variation is characteristic of the book's practical streak, turning a costly delicacy into a dish substantial enough for Sunday supper by setting it on something cheap. Sweetbreads faded from ordinary American home cooking after the Second World War and now belong mainly to restaurant menus.