Recipe: Preparing Calf Sweetbreads

Name: Preparing Calf Sweetbreads
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 980 min
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: Calf sweetbreads; Cold water

By chef patrick Asfaux 4.8/5 (23 reviews) · 🍳 22 made it

Prep 10 min

Cook 10 min

Rest 16h

Total 16h20

Before presenting you with calf sweetbread recipes, a little culinary culture. Before using calf sweetbreads in one of my recipes, you need to prepare them. So follow all these steps carefully before launching into a big calf sweetbread recipe.

Ingredients

Calf sweetbreads
Cold water

Step-by-step directions

Preparing the sweetbreads

1 Soak them in cold water for about twelve hours, changing the water regularly until it runs clear.

2 Then in a large pot, place your calf sweetbreads in cold water and bring to a boil (blanch) the aim being to remove impurities.

3 Keep this boil going for three minutes then rinse them in cold water until completely cooled.

4 Then remove any rough bits and peel them carefully, then place them under a press for 3 hours between two boards with a small weight on top to tenderize them.

There you have it, your calf sweetbreads are ready to be cooked, and multiple culinary possibilities await you: whole to braise in the oven or Calf sweetbreads braised with oyster mushrooms, or Calf sweetbreads à la maréchale or sliced to serve simply pan-fried with brown butter and lemon juice (sublime), fried with ravigote sauce or as a garnish for vol au vents, etc.

A chef's advice

In Lyon, calf sweetbreads are served pressed whole, simply pan-fried in duck fat with a lemon juice. In Bordeaux, they braise slowly in red wine with mushrooms. Two schools: Lyonnaise simplicity versus Bordeaux richness. The common pitfall is skipping the pressing step. Three hours minimum, otherwise the texture stays stringy. A meat thermometer helps: aim for 65°C at the centre if you serve them rosy, 72°C for well-done.