Sweetbreads

"Butcher Fred: Hey Maurice, why can't we seem to sell all of this weird glandular meat Rancher Bob sold us on the cheap? I tried it, and it's really good.

Butcher Maurice: I don't know, man... People just seem to get freaked out when I try to sell them on it.

Fred: Hmmm... what are you calling it?

Maurice: "Weird glandular meat we got on the cheap."

Fred: Well, there's your problem! You can't tell people about strange cheap organs and expect to make them hungry. We need to market it better, maybe give it a new name, something, I dunno, lovely sounding. Like 'sugarmeats' or 'candy steak.'

Maurice: How about 'sweetbreads'?

Fred: Perfect!"

Nobody knows the origin of the term "sweetbreads" or why it was used to describe the thymus and pancreas of cows, sheep and pigs. Scott Gold, in the above excerpt from his book Shameless Carnivore: a Manifesto for Meat Lovers, suggests the name was a gimmick to help them sell. One that worked -- sweetbreads are one of the most expensive offal cuts and frequently seen on restaurant menus, prized by chefs for their tender, creamy texture and delicate flavor.

When I tasted sweetbreads for the first time about a month ago I thought the name made sense. Mine came from a lamb, were dusted with flour and pan fried at Athens on 4th, a Greek restaurant in Tucson -- brown and crispy on the outside and rich and doughy in the center. Had they been powdered with confectioner's sugar and served without the lemon wedge, diced tomatoes, garlic and scallions, I suspect they might have looked like a funnel cake, and tasted only a little less sweet.