GAPS LEGAL stage 4 and up
I am on a quest to get more organ meats into my diet. Organ meats have been lost to our culture but they are so important to having a healthy body, healthy pregnancy and healthy children. There has been a stigma for literally hundreds of years in western cultures that organ meats are eaten only by those who can’t afford the pricier cuts of meat or are “forced” to eat the entirety of their animals and therefore should generally be avoided. In countries where that stigma doesn’t exist, organ meats are prized for their nutritional value and are the most desired cuts of meat. Because organ meats are so dense nutritionally, I encourage you to join me in finding recipes to regularly bring organ meats to your family’s table as well
I’ve done lots of liver recipes so far and now I’m branching out to other organ meats. Try liver in liver pate, liver meatballs, bacon wrapped liver, jalapeno liver poppers, and simple liver shots.
Sweetbread is the thymus gland of an animal, traditionally a young calf. They do not have a strong flavor like other organ meats, making them a great “gateway” organ meat. The thymus gland is involved in the immune regulation systems. It’s primarily connected to lymph tissue and it plays in a role in adaptive immunity, which is immunity where the body learns, grows, and retains information from alien (outside of the body) microbes.
There were quite a few butchers who sold sweetbread online. Some of those were organically raised but I was happy to find sweetbreads from a person I trust at Fields of Athenry Farm.
This recipe is based on Nourishing Traditions.
Ingredients for Preparation:
1 lb Sweetbread
Filtered Water
6 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Salt
Directions for Preparing Sweetbreads:
Rinse your sweetbread with filtered water.
Add to a large bowl and cover with filtered water. Add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar.
Allow to sit for 2 hours, changing the water once or twice and adding new vinegar.
Rinse after 2 hours. Put in a sauce pan and cover with filtered water. Add 1 tsp salt.
Parboil for 15 minutes. Remove from liquid. The liquid can be reused if you are doing more than one sweetbread.
Cool and then remove all loose skin, tissue, fat, and membranes.
Put between unbleached parchment paper. Place a weighted plate or cookie sheet on top and keep in the fridge overnight.
Cooking Sweetbread:
Multiple different recipes that you can find in the nourishing traditions cookbook and other sources of how to cook your sweetbread once it's been prepared. The most popular way to eat sweetbreads is breaded. If you are able to tolerate breading, and want to use a traditional flour, I would recommend using einkorn flour, I get mine from Jovial.
The recipe I am preparing here today is a non-floured preparation. Modification on Sally Fallon’s sweetbread with pearl onions. I always have yellow onions on-hand, so that is what I use for this recipe. Pearl onions add a lot of flavor, so they would add a lot to this dish. Next time I remember to buy pearl onions, I will try the recipe with them. The taste is unique, although not too unlike other meats. Not as strong as liver or kidney meats. I enjoy these simply fried without the breading, and serve them alongside either a main dish a portion of scrambled eggs or over top of caramelized onions. The thymus glad is an immune organ, so eating this on top of caramelized onion will give a good boost to the immune system. The thymus gland regulates a lot of functions in the immune system, and as a general principle it is good to eat the organ of the organ that is struggling. It makes sense to consume the thymus gland which would give you the vitamins, minerals and other co-factors contained in that organ and needed for that organ as well as the photomorphogenic information and support contained in the DNA of the thymus cells.
Ingredients for Cooking Sweetbreads:
1 pair of prepared sweetbreads
½ stick butter
1 lbs yellow onions, peeled, sliced and sauteed in butter
Slicing on the bias (which is diagonal to the grain). Fry the sweetbreads in butter on a stovetop and top with caramelized onions.
Preparing and Cooking Sweetbreads
Ingredients
- 1 lb Sweetbreads
- Filtered Water
- 6 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 pair of prepared sweetbreads
- ½ stick butter
- 1 lbs yellow onions, peeled, sliced and sautéed in butter
Instructions
- Rinse your sweetbread with filtered water.
- Add to a large bowl and cover with filtered water. Add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar.
- Allow to sit for 2 hours, changing the water once or twice and adding new vinegar.
- Rinse after 2 hours. Put in a sauce pan and cover with filtered water. Add 1 tsp salt.
- Paraboil for 15 minutes. Remove from liquid. The liquid can be reused if you are doing more than one sweetbread.
- Cool and then remove all loose skin, tissue, fat, and membranes.
- Put between unbleached parchment paper. Place a weighted plate or cookie sheet on top and keep in the fridge overnight.
- Slice your sweetbreads on the bias (which is diagonal to the grain).
- Then, fry the sweetbreads in butter on a stovetop and top with caramelized onions.