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Preparing Sweetbreads
Sweetbreads should be plunged into cold water as soon as they are received, and soaked for one hour, then they should be parboiled in acidulated, salted water (one teaspoon salt and one tablespoon vinegar to one quart water) for twenty minutes. After draining they should be plunged into cold water again to make them firm. The little strings and membranes, which are easily detached after parboiling, should be removed.
This is the standing preliminary for every sweetbread dish in the book: soak, blanch, chill, peel. Get it right and the later cooking is straightforward.
- What you are buying"Sweetbread" covers two glands, usually from a young calf or lamb: the round, fatty heart (or belly) sweetbread, which is the pancreas, and the more elongated throat sweetbread, which is the thymus. Veal is the usual choice; a pair is often around a pound and serves two to three.
- Freshness firstSweetbreads are among the most perishable of the offal, and the instruction to start work "as soon as they are received" suggests they were dealt with the moment they came from the butcher. Buy them cold, keep them cold, and start the soak immediately; if there is any ammoniac smell, do not use them.
- The soak mattersThe hour in cold water draws out blood and is the difference between pale, sweet flesh and a grey, livery result. Change the water two or three times, and refrigerate rather than leaving the bowl on the counter.
- Acidulated waterOne teaspoon salt and one tablespoon vinegar per quart, as given. The acid keeps the flesh white and firms the surface. Lemon juice will serve the same purpose if you prefer no vinegar note.
- Twenty minutes is longModern practice generally brings the water only to a bare simmer and holds it a few minutes rather than twenty, since these glands are cooked again afterward. Twenty minutes of hard parboiling risks leaving them dense and grainy before they ever reach the pan.
- The cold plungeThis is the hinge. Chilling immediately halts cooking and firms the gland so the membrane lifts cleanly; do it the moment they come out of the pot, and peel while they are still slightly warm.
- PressingSome period and classical treatments weight the peeled sweetbreads between two plates under a can or flat iron for an hour in the cold, which compacts them into an even slab that slices and browns neatly. This entry does not call for it.
- HoldingOnce blanched and peeled they will keep a day or so in the refrigerator and freeze acceptably. Raw, they keep very poorly and should be dealt with at once.