Sweetbreads
First soak sweetbreads in cold water for an hour or two, changing the water several times. Then parboil for five minutes in boiling water with a tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar, and throw into ice water to blanch. Let them lie in the ice water five minutes, then wipe dry, and put where they will get perfectly cold and firm, having first removed all the fibres and pipes possible. They may then be cooked in various ways and make a most delicious addition to a lunch or informal supper, or may be served as an entree either by themselves or with mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus tips, macaroni, etc.
This is not a finished dish but the standard preliminary treatment that every sweetbread recipe of the period assumes has already been done. Get the soaking and blanching right and the later cooking is straightforward.
- What you are buying"Sweetbreads" means the thymus of a calf or lamb, sold as the elongated "throat" sweetbread; the rounder, finer "heart" or belly sweetbread is the pancreas, sold under the same name. Order them ahead from a butcher, and keep them very cold — they are highly perishable and should be soaked and blanched the day you get them.
- The soakOne to two hours in several changes of cold water draws out blood and firms the gland. Keep the bowl in the refrigerator rather than on the counter, and use fresh cold water each change; some cooks add a splash of milk, which does no harm.
- Five minutes is rightThe parboil is meant only to set the flesh so it can be handled and peeled, not to cook it through. Larger veal sweetbreads may want seven or eight minutes, lamb's rather less. Bring the acidulated water to a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, which shreds the surface.
- Ice water and membraneThe plunge into ice water stops the cooking and tightens the outer membrane so it lifts away in sheets. Peel while the sweetbread is still cool and damp — once dry the membrane clings, and any fibre or tube left behind turns tough and gristly in the finished dish.
- Press themSome period recipes take "perfectly cold and firm" to mean weighted: lay the blanched sweetbreads flat between two plates or a small board with a couple of tins on top, and refrigerate an hour or more. This recipe does not call for it, but pressing makes even slices that hold together when breaded, braised or sauteed.
- FinishingOnce blanched they need only brief final cooking — five to eight minutes in butter over medium-high heat, or ten to fifteen minutes braised in stock. Cook them through but no further; longer turns the texture from creamy to chalky.
- YieldReckon a generous 1/4 lb per person as an entree, so 1 lb serves three or four. A pair of veal sweetbreads usually runs about 1 to 1 1/2 lb before trimming, and trimming loses a fair amount.