Calves Sweetbreads – Offally Satisfying

Offal is somewhat of a squeamish topic of conversation for many people and we here at Food with Passion have never been able to understand the reasons.

If you have vegan or vegetarian ideals to follow, then that is one thing, but we don’t understand why a meat eater can resolutely refuse to give offal a chance and to refuse it without even having a taster.

Offal typically describes internal organs and glands and we here have been perfectly happy to eat liver, kidney, tripe and sheeps pluck minced in the form of haggis. The pluck refers to the heart, lungs and liver.

Sweetbreads are relatively new to us, partly because they are so difficult to source. However, they are highly prized by gourmets. We use Donald Russell extensively ourselves and were happy to give their sweetbreads a try.

But what are sweetbreads? Contrary to popular opinion, sweetbreads are NOT testicles. They are in fact are the thymus (throat sweetbread) and the pancreas (heart or stomach sweetbread), especially of the calf and lamb (although beef and pork sweetbreads are also eaten).

Donald Russell employ a head chef to try out and recommend recipes using their products to customers. However, on this occasion we opted to use a sweetbread recipe by Mark Hix.

The sweetbreads were delicious following Mark’s recipe and the sauce was a perfectly matched accompaniment. In making the gribiche, we have struggled to find Chervil and instead we substututed curley parsley. The sauce is piquant from the capers, lemon juice and the mild dijon mustard and balances the richness of the sweetbreads beautifully even without the suggested and difficult to source Chervil.

On a subsequent occasion, we opted for an easier route and tried to use Tartare sauce instead; however this was too pungent from the capers. Since then we have never had the sweetbreads without spending time making the sauce gribiche for the best enjoyment.

When preparing the sweetbreads in this way, there is a great range of textures from the crunch of the breadcrumbs biting into the soft yielding delicate sweetbread and the creamy sauce accompaniment.

So … if you ever thought that you couldn’t enjoy offal, we suggest that you give sweetbreads a try out. We have done the hard work for you in finding a supplier and (like everything they supply), the sweetbreads as supplied by Donald Russell are restaurant prepared.

What are you waiting for? Place your orders now. We are sure that you will not be disappointed.