Sweetbreads

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Sweetbread Preparation

Prep Time1 day 2 hours 45 minutes
Active Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Preparation
Cuisine: All
Keyword: lamb sweetbreads, Offal Preparation, Sweetbread preparation, Sweetbreads, veal sweetbreads

Equipment

  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
  • Nonreactive container
  • Stockpot or oven-proof dutch oven
  • Roasting pan or rondeau

Materials

  • 2 pounds sweetbreads lamb or veal
  • 1 cup salt preferably Diamond Crystal
  • 1 gallon water
  • 2 large onions peeled and quartered
  • 2 large carrots peeled and cut into 2" lengths
  • 4 ribs celery cut into 2" lengths
  • 1 cup white wine dry
  • 1 gallon water or broth
  • 12 stems thyme, fresh
  • 2 each bay leaves
  • 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
  • 2 tablespoons oil

Instructions

Brine Sweetbreads

  • Stir together water and salt until dissolved. If necessary, heat water to dissolve salt and chill brine. Brine sweetbreads from 8-24 hours.

Poach and Clean Sweetbreads

  • Bring 1 gallon water to a boil and poach sweetbreads just until outer membrane turns opaque. Remove to cutting board or sheet pan for quick cooling and peel outer membranes and fat as soon as sweetbreads are cool enough to handle. Dry with paper towels.

Braise Sweetbreads

  • If searing sweetbreads, heat oil in roasting pan or rondeau until shimmering and sear sweetbreads. Reserve.
  • Add onions, carrots and celery to hot oil and saute over medium-high heat until browned. Alternately, if not searing sweetbreads, roast onions, carrots and celery in a 425 F oven until browned. Reduce oven temperature to 325
  • Drain off excess fat and deglaze pan with white wine. Add peppercorns, bay, garlic and thyme. Reduce wine by half.
  • Add stock to pan and bring to a simmer. Add sweetbreads and simmer, covered, for 30-45 minutes, or tightly wrap pan and transfer to oven for the same amount of time. Sweetbreads should be fully cooked but still tender, and the nodes should not be separating.
  • If pressing, do so in braising liquid while sweetbreads cool. Otherwise, cool sweetbreads in braising liquid before preparing according to recipe.

Notes

Pressing sweetbreads results in a more uniform and slightly denser texture, which lends itself better to trimming into precise rounds or cubes. If uniformity isn’t a concern, you can skip pressing sweetbreads.