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Sweetbread Patties (Vol-au-Vents)
After the sweetbreads have been parboiled and blanched, let them cool and drain. Cut them in small pieces, and put them in a saucepan, with a cupful of rich white stock to 2 good-sized sweetbreads; add a tablespoonful of butter, the juice of a lemon, a small piece of mace, a bit of grated nutmeg, a dash of paprika, 2 or 3 cloves, and salt to taste. Let the sweetbreads simmer in this until tender, then lift them out and strain the sauce. Beat the yolks of 2 eggs with 1/4 of a cupful of rich cream. Add these slowly to the hot sauce, stirring briskly until it is rich and creamy, but do not let it boil. Add a half glassful of sherry or madeira wine; return the sweetbreads to the sauce, and let them get thoroughly hot. Have ready patty shells or vol-au-vents of any size desired; fill with the sweetbreads and sauce, and serve at once. Stewed mushrooms and French fried potatoes, or asparagus tips, are nice served with these.
A classic creamed filling for puff-pastry shells, built on an egg-yolk liaison. The whole dish turns on the moment the yolks go in.
- Never let the sauce boilOnce the yolk-and-cream liaison is added, the sauce must stay below a simmer or it will scramble into grains. Keep it around 170-175F, off direct heat if your burner runs hot, and stir constantly until it coats a spoon.
- Parboiling and blanching, in period termsThe recipe assumes the sweetbreads have already been soaked in several changes of cold water until pale, then dropped into acidulated water for a few minutes and plunged into ice water. That firms them enough to peel away the outer membrane and any fat or tubes before slicing.
- Buying sweetbreadsVeal thymus is the prized cut and is generally special-order from a butcher. Two good-sized ones will come to somewhere in the region of 1 to 2 lb together, enough for this quantity of sauce.
- Whole spicesThe mace blade and cloves are there for perfume, not texture. Tie them in a scrap of cheesecloth or fish them out before straining, and do not skip the straining step.
- "A half glassful" of wineA wine glass in cookery of this period is conventionally about 2 fl oz, so half a glassful is roughly 1 fl oz, or 2 tablespoons. Some writers used a larger glass, so treat the figure as approximate and add to taste.
- Simmering timeCut in small pieces and already parboiled, the sweetbreads need only about 10 to 15 minutes in the stock to become tender. Longer and they go dense and dry.
- Rich white stockThis means an unbrowned veal or chicken stock. An unsalted chicken stock reduced by a third gives roughly the body intended; season at the end, since the reduction concentrates salt.
- Patty shellsVol-au-vents are puff-pastry cases. Frozen puff pastry cut into rounds with a smaller inner ring scored two-thirds through works well; bake at 400F until risen and dry, then lift out the lids and any soft interior. Fill only at the moment of serving or the pastry softens.
- YieldEnough filling for six to eight small patties as a first course, or four larger ones as a light main dish.