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Gravy, Kidney
Take half a beef kidney, or three sheeps' kidneys. Cut them into slices, flour them, and strew over them a table-spoonful of powdered herbs, of which two parts should be parsley, and one thyme. Put them into a saucepan with a piece of butter, the size of a large egg, and a small onion finely minced, and shake them over the fire until the gravy is almost dried up; then add a pint of boiling water, and simmer very gently for an hour and a half, or more, until the gravy is done to perfection. Then skim and strain. Add salt and cayenne, and any flavouring that may be preferred. Probable cost, 8d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
This is a flavouring gravy rather than a dish in itself — a small quantity of strongly savoury stock to pour over a joint, a pudding or a plate of mashed potato. Two things decide whether it is good: how well the kidney browns at the start, and how gently it simmers afterwards.
- The hinge: dry it down, then never let it boil"Shake them over the fire until the gravy is almost dried up" means cooking off the released juices until they begin to catch on the pan base, which is where much of the colour and depth comes from. Once the water goes in, keep the pan at a bare shiver, as the recipe's "simmer very gently" directs; a hard boil toughens kidney and coarsens the flavour of the liquid.
- Buying and trimming the kidneyHalf a beef (ox) kidney is roughly 8-10 oz of trimmed meat; three lambs' kidneys come to rather less, nearer 5-6 oz. "Sheeps' kidneys" in Victorian usage broadly covers what a butcher now sells as lamb's kidney, though a mature mutton kidney would have been stronger. Cut out the white core and fatty gristle at the centre before slicing, or the gravy will taste rank.
- Soaking, which the book assumesSoaking, which the book does not mention -- Many nineteenth-century cookery books recommend soaking ox kidney in cold salted water or milk and draining it before cooking. Modern kidney is fresher but still benefits; if you skip it, expect a more assertive flavour.
- Butter the size of a large eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. That is generous for the quantity of meat, and much of it is skimmed off at the end.
- Powdered herbsDried herbs, rubbed through a sieve to a powder. A tablespoon of dried herb is a lot by current measure — use about a teaspoon of dried parsley to half a teaspoon of dried thyme, or a tablespoon of the fresh chopped leaves in the same two-to-one ratio.
- A pintAn imperial pint, 20 fl oz or about 570 ml. Add it boiling so the pan does not drop off the heat and the fond lifts cleanly.
- The hour and a halfReasonable here, because the point is to extract the kidney into the liquid rather than to serve the meat. The slices will be spent and are left behind at the straining; expect some reduction over so long a simmer.
- Skimming and seasoningLet it stand a few minutes off the heat so the fat rises, skim, then strain through a fine sieve. Salt only at this stage — reduction concentrates it. Cayenne is the period seasoning; a spoonful of mushroom ketchup or a dash of Worcestershire is the sort of "flavouring that may be preferred" the book has in mind.
- YieldEnough gravy for four or five servings, not a course on its own.
Kidney was the cheap route to depth of flavour: at eightpence the whole potful was a fraction of the cost of a gravy built on shin or a knuckle of veal, and the offal counters of the period offered ox kidney in quantity. The pairing of kidney with parsley and thyme is often met with in nineteenth-century English cookery — for steak and kidney pudding — and drying the meat juices down before adding water is one way of getting colour into a gravy, though browning and caramel were also commonly used. That the recipe ends "and any flavouring that may be preferred" is characteristic of the book: it gives a technique and leaves the household its own ketchups and essences.