I am a card-carrying offal-lover. If there is tripe or tongue on your menu, I will be ordering it. Often to my husband Greg's dismay. At home, however, I haven't cooked much with organ meats, excepting chicken giblets, because of the difficulty finding them from antibiotic-free, sustainably-raised sources. And then there is also Greg's dismay to consider. However, since joining our meat CSA, I've been putting in orders for offal cuts whenever they're available. And Greg has been very indulgent.

Sweetbreads are the pancreas and thymus glands, usually from veal or lamb. The texture is smooth but firm and the flavor is like a delicate, sweet chicken liver. They have a distinctive, slightly sweet smell. They are on the fiddly side to cook, due to the membrane that surrounds and connects the lobes of the organ. Generally, sweetbreads are poached for a couple minutes in water with lemon, wine or vinegar, and then the membrane is tediously peeled off. There is an outer, thicker membrane, and also connective tissues between the lobes - you can remove just the outer layer, or all of it, if you'd like the lobes separate. Then the meat can be sautéed, grilled, or otherwise cooked.

For my first attempt at cooking sweetbreads, I followed Fergus Henderson's advice in The Whole Beast. I decided to keep it simple and went for a sauté in just butter. Cooked until they were a nice golden brown, they were tender, yet firm, with a smooth texture. The taste was delicate enough that I wouldn't want to overwhelm them with anything very strongly flavored, but next time I will try a more complicated dish. In fact, for inspiration, last week at a Greek restaurant, I had them with fried garlic and artichokes, a very successful combination.