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Kidney and Egg Toast
Mince a calf's kidney, and fry it slowly in butter for ten to fifteen minutes; then mix with it a quarter of a pint of nicely-flavoured thickened gravy, let it simmer for a few minutes, then spread the mixture on rounds of buttered toast, and place a poached egg on top of each.
A Victorian breakfast or savoury dish that comes together in about twenty minutes, provided the kidney is prepared properly first. The hinge is the fat: veal kidney is encased in suet and threaded with hard core, and neither should reach the pan.
- Trim before mincingStrip away all suet and cut out the white central core and any tubes with scissors. Left in, the core stays chewy and the suet turns the mixture greasy.
- Calf's kidneyVeal kidney is a special order from a butcher in most places. Lamb's kidneys are the closest easy substitute in mildness — roughly half a dozen, depending on the size of the veal kidney — while ox or pig kidney is considerably stronger and benefits from a soak in milk or lightly salted water for half an hour.
- "Mince"Here it most likely means chopped fine with a knife rather than put through a machine, though mincing machines were in domestic use by this date. Pieces about the size of a pea hold their texture; ground kidney turns pasty.
- A quarter of a pintAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, a generous half cup. "Nicely-flavoured thickened gravy" means a brown sauce or meat gravy already made and thickened with roux — a good beef or veal stock reduced and thickened works, with a spoonful of mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire for the savoury edge the period expected.
- Fry slowlyTen to fifteen minutes over low heat is right for chopped kidney only if it never boils in its own juices. Keep the pan gentle; high heat makes kidney seize and go rubbery, and the same applies once the gravy goes in — a bare simmer, no more.
- SeasoningThe recipe assumes the gravy carries the salt. Taste before spreading, and add cayenne or plenty of black pepper; kidney is flat without it.
- Toast and assemblyCut rounds with a cutter from firm white bread, toast, butter while hot, and top just before serving — the mixture soaks in quickly and a plated one goes soggy within a few minutes.
- YieldOne veal kidney should make something like four to six rounds, depending on its size and the size of the rounds — enough for two or three at breakfast or four as a savoury course.
Kidney on toast belongs to the English breakfast sideboard and to the savoury, the small hot salty course served after the sweet at Victorian and Edwardian dinners. Offal was cheap, quick to cook and strongly flavoured, all of which suited a dish meant to be eaten in quantity in the morning or in a mouthful or two at the end of a long meal. The addition of a poached egg here is characteristic of the period's fondness for stacking a second protein on top of the first. Calf's kidney was the aristocrat of the group, milder and more tender than ox or sheep, and its near-disappearance from British and American butchers' counters over the last century says more about changing appetites for offal than about the meat itself.