The price of sweetbreads varies with the season, in winter being about double what it is in the spring. In the country they are often thrown away, and when sold bring not more than twenty-five cents a pair. In the city the price varies from seventy-five cents to one dollar and a half a pair. Although we speak of sweetbreads as a pair, there is in reality but one sweetbread, consisting of two parts connected by a short membrane. The pancreas is sometimes sold for the sweetbread, but the sweetbread proper is found higher up in the throat and breast, and is not connected with the pancreas. Only a vestige of the sweetbread remains after the calf begins to eat grass, while the pancreas is a permanent gland of the animal.

As they spoil very quickly, sweetbreads should be attended to as soon as received from the market. After being soaked in cold water an hour or more, the water being renewed several times, let simmer for about forty minutes in salted, acidulated water, then remove to cold water to harden. Remove all the tubes, outside skin, and fibres, but do not break the sweetbreads themselves. When cooled a little tie each piece in a bit of cheesecloth, drawing the cloth quite tightly, in some cases, to make the pieces of a nearly uniform surface and oval form, then cool under a weight.