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Sweetbreads (SWEETBREAD is the thymus gland)
SWEETBREAD is the thymus gland of lamb or calf, but in cookery, veal sweetbreads only are considered. It is prenatally developed, of unknown function, and as soon as calf is taken from liquid food it gradually disappears. Pancreas, stomach sweetbread, is sold in some sections of the country, but in our markets this custom is not practised. Sweetbreads are a reputed table delicacy, and a valuable addition to the menu of the convalescent. A sweetbread consists of two parts, connected by tubing and membranes. The round, compact part is called the heart sweetbread, as its position is nearer the heart; the other part is called the throat sweetbread. When sweetbread is found in market separated, avoid buying two of the throat sweetbreads, as the heart sweetbread is more desirable.
Sweetbreads spoil very quickly. They should be removed from paper as soon as received from market, plunged into cold water and allowed to stand one hour, drained, and put into acidulated salted boiling water, then allowed to cook slowly twenty minutes; again drained, and plunged into cold water, that they may be kept white and firm. Sweetbreads are always parboiled in this manner for subsequent cooking.
This is the base preparation every sweetbread dish in the book assumes: soak, blanch, chill. Get this right and the later cooking is straightforward.
- The hinge: soak, then shockThe cold soak draws out blood so the gland stays pale, and the plunge into cold water after blanching firms the flesh so it can be trimmed and sliced without falling apart. Skipping either step gives you grey, mushy sweetbreads.
- Blanching timeTwenty minutes at a bare simmer suits a large pair of calf sweetbreads; many modern recipes blanch for only 5 to 10 minutes depending on size — just until firm and opaque through. Overcooked thymus turns dense and grainy, and it will be cooked again afterwards.
- "Acidulated salted water"About 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt per quart. The acid keeps them white; it is not a preservative.
- Peeling and pressingThe book omits both. Once cold, pull away the outer membrane and the connecting tubes, then press the lobes between two plates with a weight for an hour or two in the refrigerator. This gives even slices that brown properly.
- Buying themSweetbreads are rarely on open display; order from a butcher, and expect frozen as often as fresh. The distinction between heart (round, solid) and throat (elongated, ragged) still holds, and the heart lobe is still the better buy.
- They really do spoil quicklyThis is the one warning in the entry to take literally. Offal has a large surface area and high enzyme activity. Use within 24 hours of purchase, keep them submerged in cold water in the refrigerator, and change the water.
- YieldOne pair of veal sweetbreads runs about 1 to 1 1/4 lb and serves two to three as a main course, four as a first course. They lose some weight in soaking, blanching and trimming.
- PancreasThe "stomach sweetbread" mentioned here is a different organ with a softer, richer texture. Where it is sold it goes under its own name, and it is not interchangeable in these recipes.
Sweetbreads occupy an odd double position in nineteenth-century cooking: a luxury on restaurant menus and, as this entry says, a standby of the sickroom. Bland, soft and easily digested, they were among the foods prescribed for convalescents alongside beef tea and milk toast, and cookbooks of the period routinely carried a chapter for invalid cookery. The origin of the name is obscure; one leading suggestion connects it to older senses of "bread" meaning a piece or morsel of flesh, with "sweet" distinguishing it from stronger-tasting offal, though this is not established. The gland is only present in young animals, which is why the entry notes that it disappears once the calf is weaned, and why the sweetbreads of cookery come from young stock such as lamb or calf. Consumption in English-speaking countries fell steeply through the twentieth century as offal generally went out of domestic fashion, and calf sweetbreads are now more likely to be met in a restaurant than a home kitchen.