Was Ist Ein Sweetbread?

Sweetbread is a culinary name for the thymus or pancreas, typically from calf and lamb. 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.

What exactly is a sweetbread?

Sweetbread is the thymus gland and is only available from young animals. As animals mature, the gland degenerates into a mass of connective tissue and fat. The sweetbread is collected in two separate portions, although it is a single gland.

What is a sweetbread in the UK?

For those that are not aware, sweetbreads are a type of offal and come from the thymus, situated at the base of the throat, of either calves or lambs. ... The pancreas is commonly sold as heart or stomach sweetbreads, there are other rarely used sweetbreads too such as tongue and cheek sweetbreads.