Sweetbread Prep

Classmate: Why is it called sweetbread?
Chef Instructor: Because it’s really hard to sell thymus on a menu.

Yep, you read right. Wednesday night we will be cooking up cow thymus. Tonight we prepped the gland for cooking tomorrow. While my partner was busy doing dishes, I was busy holding down the throw up.

I pulled the thymus out of the blood soaked plastic bag with a pair of tongs and gloved hands. Blood. Everywhere. It resembles brain matter. Pockets of flesh loosely cling to each other to form one big gloppy mess (yes, it’s a technical culinary term). I drop the gland into a pot of boiling, salted lemon water until it is light poached and just starts to turn a shade of white.

Upon removing the thymus from the water, I spent several minutes pulling the sinew (filmy layer of skin) off of the flesh. All the while, holding down the – oh wait – it’s coming up. Stand over the trash can for a minute.

Resume sinew removal.

Once sinew is removed, I wrapped the thymus all up in a piece of cheesecloth and molded it into the shape of salami. Now get ready for the big finish….

I wrung out all of the excess “juice” to create a solid mass of gland. I tied up both ends of the cheese cloth and hung it in the refrigerator to do its thing overnight.

Now, can anyone tell me what’s sweet about that?