Food & Origins
sweetbread
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IPA is the General American pronunciation listed by Wiktionary.
In short
A sweetbread is the thymus gland or the pancreas of an animal, usually a calf or lamb, cooked and eaten as food.
Why it is called "sweet" and "bread" is unclear.
01 Meaning
What does sweetbread mean?
Two different organs are sold as sweetbreads. The thymus is sometimes called the throat or neck sweetbread, and the pancreas the stomach or heart sweetbread. They come most often from calves and lambs. Beef and pork sweetbreads are only pancreatic, because the thymus turns fibrous in older animals.
A common way to prepare them is to soak them in salt water, poach them in milk, peel off the outer membrane, then chill, bread and fry them. In places such as Argentina and northern Mexico they are often grilled slowly over charcoal.
02 Word origin
Where does it come from?
The word dates to the 1500s. The sweet element is clear, but bread may be connected to Old English bræd, meaning flesh, rather than to an ordinary loaf of bread. This derivation is uncertain, so the name should not be taken literally.
03 In context
How to use it in a sentence
“The restaurant served crisp fried sweetbreads with lemon and capers.”
“Our butcher sets aside veal sweetbreads for customers who ask in advance.”
Sources and updates
- sweetbread, Cambridge Dictionary. Checked October 20, 2026.
- sweetbread - Origin and history, Online Etymology Dictionary. Checked October 20, 2026.
- sweetbread, Wiktionary. Checked October 19, 2026.
- Sweetbread, Wikipedia. Checked October 19, 2026.
Definitions and examples are written in our own words from the sources above. Published . Updated .