Stewed Kidney
Boil kidneys the night before till very tender, turn meat and gravy into a dish and cover over. In the morning, boil for a few moments, thicken with flour and water, add part of an onion chopped very fine, pepper, salt, and a lump of butter, and pour over toasted bread well buttered. - Mrs. E. L. F.
A two-stage breakfast dish: the long, dull work is done the night before, and what remains in the morning is a five-minute sauce poured over toast. The only real problem with the method as written is where the kidneys spend the night.
- Chill it overnight, do not just cover it"Turn meat and gravy into a dish and cover over" presumably relied on a cool larder or cellar, though the book does not say how cold. Cooked meat in stock left at room temperature is prime territory for Clostridium perfringens, whose spores survive boiling and germinate as the pot cools. Refrigerate the kidneys in their liquid and bring them back to a full simmer for several minutes in the morning, not "a few moments."
- Which kidneysThe book does not say, and gives no quantities; the plural "kidneys" may point to lamb or pork as readily as to one large kidney. Beef kidney is sold whole at roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb, and four to six lamb kidneys would be a comparable amount. Lamb and veal are mild; beef is strong and benefits most from the long first boil.
- Trim and soak firstSplit the kidney, cut out the white core and any fat with scissors, and soak the pieces in cold salted water or milk for an hour, changing it once. The recipe does not mention it, but soaking is a common recommendation; skipping it leaves the ammoniac flavour many people dislike in kidney.
- "Till very tender"Beef kidney needs 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a bare simmer, lamb 30 to 40 minutes. A hard boil tightens kidney into rubber, so keep the water barely moving and start it cold with the meat in it so the liquid becomes the gravy.
- Thickening with flour and waterThis is a white wash, not a roux: about 2 tablespoons flour shaken smooth in 1/4 cup cold water, stirred into the simmering gravy and cooked two or three minutes to lose the raw taste. Add it gradually, since the amount of liquid left will vary.
- The onion goes in rawAs written, finely chopped raw onion is added at the end and only cooks for a moment, which leaves it sharp. Softening it in the butter before it meets the gravy gives a rounder result.
- YieldA beef kidney with its gravy serves three or four over toast. Use a sturdy bread, cut thick and well toasted, or it collapses under the sauce.
Kidney was strongly associated with breakfast in the English-speaking kitchen of the 1870s and 80s, though it appeared at dinner too in pies and stews, which is part of why this appears with the makings of a morning meal rather than a roast: devilled kidneys, kidneys on toast and kidney stew all belong to the same tradition of a hot savoury dish served early. Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, published in Minneapolis in 1877 and growing out of the Ohio Centennial Buckeye Cook Book, includes methods of this overnight-and-finish kind, which would have suited a cook who wanted something on the table quickly at dawn. The dish also reflects a plain economy of nose-to-tail cooking that needs no defending: offal was cheap, arrived with the beef, and was expected to be used. The signature "Mrs. E. L. F." is typical of the book, which gathered contributions from named and initialled housekeepers across the region rather than from a single author.