Sweetbread
Sweetbread is a culinary name for the thymus (also called throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread) or pancreas (also called stomach, belly or gut sweetbread), typically from calf ("ris de veau") and lamb ("ris d'agneau"). The "heart" sweetbreads are more spherical in shape, while the "throat" sweetbreads are more cylindrical in shape. As the thymus is replaced by fibrous tissue in older animals, only pancreatic sweetbreads come from beef and pork. Like other edible non-muscle from animal carcasses, sweetbreads may be categorized as "offal", "fancy meat", or "variety meat".

Various other glands used as food may also sometimes be called "sweetbreads", including the parotid gland ("cheek" or "ear" sweetbread), the sublingual glands ("tongue" sweetbreads or "throat bread") as well as ovary and testicles.

One common preparation of sweetbreads involves soaking in salt water, then poaching in milk, after which the outer membrane is removed. Once dried and chilled, they are often breaded and fried. They are also used for stuffing or in pâtés. They are grilled in many Latin American cuisines, such as in the Argentine asado, and served in bread in Turkish cuisine.

The word "sweetbread" is first attested in the 16th century, but the etymology of the name is unclear. "Sweet" is perhaps used since the thymus is sweet and rich-tasting, as opposed to savory-tasting muscle flesh. "Bread" may come from "brede", "roasted meat" or from the Old English "brǣd" ("flesh" or "meat").
Q5192955
culinary name
UNK
Q163987
thymus
Concept
Q9618
pancreas
Concept
Q2935
calf
Concept
Q14566073
lamb
Concept
Q192628
beef
Concept
Q191768
pork
Concept
Q157484
offal
Concept
Q9647
gland
Concept
Q691653
parotid gland
Concept
Q692200
sublingual gland
Concept
Q9631
ovary
Concept
Q9384
testicle
Concept
Q911646
soaking in salt water
Concept
Q263588
poaching
Concept
Q658413
breaded
Concept
Q300472
fried
Concept
Q816704
pâté
Concept
Q2707196
Latin American cuisine
Concept
Q414
Argentine
LOC
Q720254
asado
Concept
Q654493
Turkish cuisine
Concept
Q35245
etymology
Concept
Q460453
Sweet
Concept
Q202637
savory
Concept
Q49951
Sweetbread
Concept
+16^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
16
NUMBER
natural product of taxon
subclass of
country of origin