No. 1567

Sweetbreads a la St. Laurent

Ris de Veau a la St. Laurent

Blanch sufficient sweetbreads, then put them to cool under a weight; cut them up into quarter inch thick slices then into one inch squares, also some veal kidneys the same size and shape, and slices of mushroom heads. Run small silver skewers (Fig. 176) through a piece of sweetbread a piece of kidney and mushroom; dip them in melted butter, then in bread-crumbs and broil over a slow fire. Pour over an Italian sauce (No. 484) with a little chopped truffle added.

← No. 1566 Sweetbreads a la St. Cloud Veal No. 1568 Sweetbreads a la Theodora →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's brochettes are straightforward once the sweetbreads are prepped: the whole dish hinges on the blanch-and-press step, which firms a soft gland enough that it can be cubed and skewered without collapsing.

Blanch and press properlySoak the sweetbreads in several changes of cold water for a few hours until pale, peel away the heavy outer membrane and gristle, then simmer 8-10 minutes in salted water, refresh in ice water and press between two trays under a 2-3 lb weight for at least two hours or overnight. Skip the pressing and the slices will not hold a clean quarter-inch cut.
Which sweetbread to buyAsk for the heart or "kernel" sweetbread (the round pancreatic gland), which is firm and cuts into neat squares. The elongated throat sweetbread (the thymus) is more ragged and better suited to braises or stuffing.
Veal kidney needs its own preparationTrim off all suet and cut out the white central core and any tubes before slicing. A brief soak in cold water or milk removes the ammoniac edge; the original assumes a cook who already does this.
"Small silver skewers"These are attelettes, the ornamental silver skewers of nineteenth-century service, often with a decorative finial. Metal or soaked bamboo skewers of about 6 inches work identically; metal conducts heat into the centre of the cubes, which helps.
"Broil over a slow fire"A moderate charcoal bed or a broiler element set 6-8 inches away, not the searing distance. The crumbs need 8-10 minutes total with frequent turning; too close and the coating blackens while the kidney stays raw.
DonenessThe blanch leaves the sweetbread largely cooked, so on the skewer it mainly needs colour and heating through. The kidney is the limiting piece: take it to firm and faintly pink at the centre, roughly 145-150F. Past that it turns grainy and tastes strongly of offal.
Italian sauceRanhofer's No. 484 is a brown sauce (espagnole) of the classic italienne type, finished with chopped mushroom and shallot cooked down in white wine and usually herbs. A well-made demi-glace with sauteed minced mushroom and shallot, deglazed in dry white wine, stands in for it.
TruffleThe chopped truffle is a garnish for the sauce, not a structural ingredient. A teaspoon of chopped preserved black truffle, or the dish left plain, is preferable to truffle oil.
YieldA pair of veal sweetbreads (about 1 lb) with a veal kidney and 8 oz of mushroom caps will fill roughly six to eight skewers, about four servings as a course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially the house's working repertoire written out at exhaustive length -- which is why this entry sits in a numbered run of sweetbread dishes, each named for a different place or person, and cross-refers to a sauce by number rather than repeating it. Sweetbreads were a luxury item in the period, prized for their delicacy and their neutrality; a restaurant could serve them a dozen ways in a single book without repeating itself. The Saint-Laurent name follows the French convention of borrowing a saint or a suburb for a garnish, and in this case the defining feature is the skewer: skewered, crumbed and grilled preparations were catalogued as en brochette or en attelettes, and the silver attelette itself was as much a piece of table display as a cooking tool, sent to the dining room still bearing the food.