Your recipe for the Week:

I just had someone ask me what sweetbreads are, well dear friend here is a quick and easy definition:

There are two kinds of sweetbreads: stomach sweetbreads (also known as heart or belly sweetbreads), which are an animal's pancreas, and neck (throat or gullet) sweetbreads, an animal's thymus gland. (The animal in question can be a hog or calf or just about any other large mammal) They're called sweetbreads for the obvious reason that if you called them thymus glands or whatever you couldn't give the damn things away.

You ever get hungry for sweetbreads? Well me neither, but after reading this recipe I am just wanting to cook up a big old pot full.


Creamed Sweetbreads recipe
ingredients
1 1/2 lb (675g) calfs sweetbreads
1 sprig of lemon thyme
1/2 pt (300ml) water
1 chicken bouillon cube (stock cube)
1/4 pt (150ml) dry white wine
salt and black pepper
1 1/3 cup (100 g) very small burton mushrooms
1/2 stick + 1 tbsp (5 Tbsp) 2 1/2 oz butter
1/3 cup (50 g) plain flour (All purpose)
1/4 pt (150ml) single cream
Chopped parsley (to garnish)



1. Soak the sweetbreads in very cold water for about 2 hours to remove all the blood, then drain well.

2. Place them in a saucepan, cover with fresh water and add 1 tsp of salt. Bring to the boil very slowly (allow at least 5 minutes, or longer if possible), then drain off the water again.

3. Carefully remove any membrane without tearing the sweetbreads.

4. Rinse out the pan, then add the sweetbreads with the lemon thyme, 1/2 pt (300 ml) water and the crumbled bouillon cube, wine, salt and freshly ground pepper.

5. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes.

6. Add the button mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Enjoy, and let me know how they turn out!

JQP