Make Mine Thyroid Gland

Make Mine Thyroid Gland

My daughter and I were at Nandu last night, and the first item on the menu is molleja (sweetbread). It was billed as an “acquired taste,” so my daughter (gotta love ‘er) jumped on this one. We ordered it, and ate some: she wasn’t crazy about the texture, but I really liked it, a little like crispy veal, slightly caramelized crustiness, squeeze of lemon, meaty, tasty, had seconds.

When I got home, I was raving about the molleja to The Wife, and she said, “Thyroid, ooh, that’s bad.”

What she meant, if I can begin to plumb the depths of her psyche, is that a gland is a bad thing to eat. I don’t know whether it is or it isn’t, but I really like the thyroid gland at Nandu.

Hammond

DH, sweetbreads would be the thymus gland (pic;human version)and not the thyroid. The thyroid is located at the base of the neck higher up than the thymus.

thymus in wikipedia
The wikipedia entry indicates that the thymus is replaced by fat (I'm aasuming that this is true in animals too), which would help in the taste dept. and also why typically one sees veal sweetbreads and not cow sweetbreads. However, cow pancreas are also termed sweetbread.
At any rate, sweetbreads, like most organ meats, are tasty, tasty.

[Edit: written before I saw Sazerac's post]

David,

Sorry I can't answer your specific question, but your post raised another question for me. I always thought Sweetbreads meant the Thymus gland rather than the Thyroid gland. Are these two different glands or the same?


I found this article by way of Bartleby from Gray's Anatomy

The thymus (Fig. 1178) is a temporary organ, attaining its largest size at the time of puberty (Hammar), when it ceases to grow, gradually dwindles, and almost disappears. If examined when its growth is most active, it will be found to consist of two lateral lobes placed in close contact along the middle line, situated partly in the thorax, partly in the neck, and extending from the fourth costal cartilage upward, as high as the lower border of the thyroid gland.

Having now done a bit of research, I see there is also throat sweetbreads and belly sweetbreads. Does not make much difference to me, I am not a big fan of eating anything from the endocrinal or lymphatic systems...I prefer muscle tissue, at least from the larger animals where I might recognize the same on my plate.

So when our waiter served what he identified as "thyroid gland," I asked if other organs might be classified as sweetbreads, and he said, "no, just the thyroid gland."

We were also served a salsa that looked and tasted like mustard, but which our waiter denied contained any mustard.

Hammond

Your waiter was wrong. Molleja in Spanish - or sweetbreads in English - are the thymus - not thyroid - glands. I can't begin to tell you how many veal sweetbreads I've processed in France. And at El Bulli last year we did rabbit sweetbreads - hundreds if not thousands of them - they were a bitch to detach intact - very delicate.

And to further add to the confusion, in Italy they're called animelle - but that term may also apply to testicles.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Phew! That's a relief! Personally, having had my own thyroid surgically removed nearly 20 years ago, I would hate to think it ended up as a restaurant dish.

Suzy

sdritz wrote:Phew! That's a relief! Personally, having had my own thyroid surgically removed nearly 20 years ago, I would hate to think it ended up as a restaurant dish.

Suzy

Overall, then, I guess The Wife was right to be taken aback when I revealed what I thought was the identity of the unusual meat. It did taste a lot like veal, and it looked like veal, and although it was identified as only beef, it may have been very young cow.

Hammond

This thread reminds me of when I was in graduate school and we had to do a nutritional interview which was being videotaped and then critiqued. One of my classmates asked her interviewee if he ate thymus gland. You should of seen his face.
Paulette

David Hammond wrote:So when our waiter served what he identified as "thyroid gland," I asked if other organs might be classified as sweetbreads, and he said, "no, just the thyroid gland."

We were also served a salsa that looked and tasted like mustard, but which our waiter denied contained any mustard.

Hammond

Perhaps your waiter didn't contain any waiter.

Have you found the first secret secretion menu in Chicago?

sdritz wrote:Phew! That's a relief! Personally, having had my own thyroid surgically removed nearly 20 years ago, I would hate to think it ended up as a restaurant dish.

Suzy

Having had my thymus removed at about the same time, this thread is definitely making me a bit queasy. So =that's= what sweetbreads are, eh. And here I thought they were some kind of seafood like tripe <grin>.

Chris

Eating glandulars may actually be very healthy. This debate continues to "rage" among the vitamin set...

Dr. Royal Lee of Standard Process Labs was one of the first to write of the benefits of glandulars.... as well as organ extracts.

Of course, lab quality glandular extract is far different than just eating sweetbreads, but the sweetbreads might indeed be even better.

There's an entire branch of modern chiropractic care called "Applied Kinesiology" that uses exotic vitamin/mineral/glandular extract formulations in treatment. Pioneers include Dr. George Goodheart and particularly Dr. Alan Beardall.

Louisa Chu wrote:

"I can't begin to tell you how many veal sweetbreads I've processed in France. . . And to further add to the confusion, in Italy they're called animelle - but that term may also apply to testicles."

Louisa-- if memory serves me, pork testicles taste a great deal like veal sweetbreads, if slightly firmer. I had them in Romania, where they are called fodoli, I believe. Did you try "the other animelle" in Italy?

By the way, Joyeux Noel.

I see there is also throat sweetbreads and belly sweetbreads.

The first (also known as neck sweetbreads) is meant to refer to the thymus, the second (also known as stomach sweetbreads) to the pancreas.

Louisa Chu wrote:And at El Bulli last year we did rabbit sweetbreads - hundreds if not thousands of them - they were a bitch to detach intact - very delicate.

Rabbit Sweetbreads were in the meat case at Marketplace on Oakton when I was there last night....but, from the size, I would guess pancreas.

I love the sweetbreads at Nandu, and I am SURE that htere is mustard in the reddish chimmichurri. My husband and I were there the other day and disccussed it at length... I never tasted anything vaguly like it in BA, but I love the stuff.

borismom wrote:I am SURE that htere is mustard in the reddish chimmichurri. My husband and I were there the other day and disccussed it at length... I never tasted anything vaguly like it in BA, but I love the stuff.

According to our waiter (notoriously unreliable though he was), the mustard chimichurri was invented by Miguel, the owner of Nandu/Ferros, some years ago.

Chimichurri, though it may refer to a specific condiment of oil, parsley, etc., seems to be a generic term that can be applied to any oil-based Argentinian-type sauce. Like salsa; it can be made up from any one of a number of different ingredients. Basically, it's chimichurri if you say it is.

Hammond

What's Ferro's?

borismom wrote:What's Ferro's?

Fierros -- used to be Pipo's. Argentinean meat fest, decently priced.

Fierros
2550 W Addison
(773) 305-3333