There are three ways of cooking sweetbreads, viz.:—Braising (No. [248]), poaching (No. [249]), and grilling (No. [259]). In the following recipes, therefore, the reader will kindly refer to the directions given under one of the numbers just mentioned, according as to whether the dish is to be a braising, a poaching, or a grill.
[1219—ATTEREAUX DE RIS DE VEAU A LA VILLEROY]
Cut some veal sweetbreads (preferably the throat kind) into roundels one and one-third in. in diameter and one-third in. thick. Prepare an equal number of mushrooms and truffle roundels, somewhat thinner than those of sweetbread.
[408]
]Impale these roundels on little wooden skewers, the size of matches, and about four in. long; alternating the different products in so doing. Dip these skewers into a Villeroy sauce, and set them on a dish. When the sauce is quite cold, remove the attereaux; clear them of any superfluous sauce that may have fallen on to the dish; dip them in an anglaise (No. [174]); roll them in very fine and fresh bread-crumbs, and turn them with the fingers, so as to shape them like small cylinders. Plunge them into plenty of hot fat eight minutes before serving; drain them on a piece of linen; carefully withdraw the wooden skewers and put little silver ones in their place. Dish the attereaux on a folded napkin, with fried parsley in the centre; or set them upright in a circle, on a rice or semolina cushion lying on a dish, and put some very green, fried parsley in the middle.
Serve a Périgueux sauce separately.
[1220—CHARTREUSE DE RIS DE VEAU]
Prepare (1) one and one-quarter lbs. of fine forcemeat with cream (No. [194]); (2) two poached, veal throat sweetbreads, cut into slices; (3) one-half lb. of cooked mushrooms, cut into large slices, and three oz. of sliced truffles; (4) a garnish of carrots and turnips, raised by means of a tube- or spoon-cutter, or cut into grooved roundels two-thirds inch in diameter; and peas and French beans. Each of these vegetables should be cooked in a way befitting its nature, and kept somewhat firm.
Liberally butter a quart Charlotte-mould. Line its bottom and sides with the vegetables, arranged in alternate and vari-coloured rows, and spread thereon a layer of forcemeat, one-half inch thick.
This done, set upon the layer of forcemeat just spread, another of slices of sweetbread, mushrooms, and truffles; cover the whole with a coat of forcemeat; start the operation again with a litter of sweetbread, mushroom, and truffle slices, and proceed as before until the mould is filled. Finish with a layer of forcemeat. Cover with a round piece of buttered paper, and set to poach in a [bain-marie] and in the oven, for from forty-five to fifty minutes.
When taking the chartreuse out of the [bain-marie], let it stand for seven or eight minutes, that the ingredients inside may settle a little, and then turn it out in the middle of a round dish; place a large, cooked, grooved, and very white mushroom on the top of it, and encircle its base with a crown of small braised and well-trimmed half-lettuces.