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Cutlets of Sweetbreads
464. Boil some sweetbreads for five-and-twenty minutes, and when cold, cut them in slices; dip them in yolk of egg, and bread-crumbs, with pepper, mace, salt, parsley, and thyme, or lemon. Fry them a light brown, and place them separately on some slices of cooked tongue pared, and similarly seasoned and fried. Serve them with a little rich gravy at the bottom of the dish. The tongues may be omitted though an improvement.
A Victorian fried-sweetbread dish that stands or falls on the preliminary soak and press, which the original takes for granted. Everything after that is straightforward crumbing and shallow frying.
- Buy the right glandSweetbreads means the thymus ("throat") and pancreas ("heart" or "stomach") glands of veal or lamb. Veal heart sweetbreads are the plump, even-textured ones worth slicing into cutlets; order them from a butcher, since they rarely appear in supermarket cases.
- Soak and skin firstSoak in several changes of cold water, or lightly salted water, for two to three hours until they lose their pink tinge. After poaching, peel away the surrounding membrane and any gristly veins while still warm, or the slices will curl in the pan.
- The twenty-five minutesThat timing suits large whole veal sweetbreads, simmered rather than hard boiled. Lamb sweetbreads are much smaller and want 5 to 8 minutes. In both cases drop them into cold water afterwards to firm them.
- Press before slicingThis is the step the recipe leaves out and the reason home versions fall apart. Lay the cooled sweetbreads between two plates with a weight on top and chill for an hour or more; they cut into clean half-inch slices instead of crumbling.
- MaceBlade or ground mace is the outer covering of the nutmeg, warmer and less sweet than nutmeg itself. Use a scant pinch per egg wash. Nutmeg can stand in, used sparingly.
- Cooked tongueThe recipe does not say which tongue; pressed ox tongue, sold sliced at good delicatessens, is the likely reading, and a thick slice of cooked ham stands in acceptably. "Pared" most plausibly means trimmed to match the size of the sweetbread slices so each cutlet sits neatly on its base.
- FryingShallow fry in clarified butter or a butter and oil mix at a moderate heat, around 350F. The sweetbreads are already cooked through, so you are only setting the crumb, two to three minutes a side.
- The gravy"Rich gravy" here means a reduced brown veal or beef stock, poured into the dish under the cutlets rather than over them so the crust stays crisp. A spoonful of Madeira or sherry reduced into it is period-appropriate.
- YieldOne pair of veal sweetbreads gives roughly 8 to 10 slices, enough for four as a starter or two as a main course.