Mannablog - Food In South Devon

Whilst picking up cooking class supplies in Luscombes butchers in Totnes I spied a tray of pinky, blobby looking things.  “Are they sweetbreads?”, I said.  “Yes”, said Elliot the excellent and helpful butcher.  A quick conversation ascertained that they were lambs sweetbreads and what the butcher called throat glands, or thymus if you want to be more scientific.  For those not familiar with these little fellows they are very soft little glands, with a delicate taste which some liken to a mild bacon.  The main attraction, I think, is their melting texture when cooked, imagine perfectly prepared calves livers and then imagine it only twice as soft.

They are something of a rarity here although they will definitely be seen on the menu of restaurants run by any chef influenced by Fergus Henderson, and this dish was  was inspired by a recipe by Mark Hix.  They may also be well known to those born before 1950 when frugality in the kitchen was the norm rather than the exception.   There are probably a number of reasons why they are not prepared at home very often:

1. They are pinky, blobby things that just don’t look attractive (though arguably a vegetarian would say something similar about any piece of meat)

2. They are a gland and therefore unpopular in most UK kitchens where even liver and kidneys struggle for acceptance.   I imaging “eeeuuuccckkk!!  Grrrrrossssss!” would be the reaction of many less adventurous eaters.

3. There are a little painstaking to prepare: soak for some hours or even overnight to wash out blood and enzymes; blanch; devein and removed fat and membrane; then cook them.   Hence my initial question, “Are they worth the effort?”.

In many parts of Europe they are scoffed far more readily and certainly feature regularly in Spanish and Eastern Mediterranean cooking.  I’ve cooked hem before and was delighted to see them in the butchers so I guess I’m in the fan club.

For this dish  I soaked them overnight then blanched them in boiling, salty water for two minutes, this makes removing the outer membrane and other bits much easier.  I made a sauce of red onions, mushrooms, thyme, grain mustard, chicken stock and cream.  To cook the sweetbreads I heated a pan with a little olive oil, sliced the sweetbreads in 5cm strips and tossed them into the hot pan.  I fried them on a high heat for a couple of minutes then reduced the heat a little and added a good knob of butter, frying them until they were a nice colour and just a little crisp.  This sweetbread stroganoff  was served with a tabbouleh with a lemon dressing (a little acid works well with sweetbreads I think).

The tasters liked the results (well it’s certainly different to your average working lunch) and definitely worth the effort for the the creamy texture.  So if you haven’t tried them I urge you to give it a go.   Mark Hix’s original recipe is here