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Kidney Gravy
Take an ox kidney, or, if preferred, four sheep's kidneys, cut into slices, dredge these with flour, and fry them lightly in butter, with a thinly-sliced onion and a bunch of sweet herbs. Move them about gently until nicely browned, then pour over them a pint of water. Simmer gently for an hour and a half, strain, and set aside for use. Time, six minutes to fry the meat. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for one pint of gravy.
A Victorian foundation gravy rather than a dish in itself: kidney browned, simmered, strained, and kept to enrich pies, stews and made-over meats. The kidney does the work of stock in a fraction of the time.
- Trim the kidney firstThis is the step the original assumes you know. Halve the kidney, cut out the white core and any fatty gristle at the centre, and rinse well; ox kidney in particular can turn the gravy acrid if the core goes in. Soaking for half an hour in cold salted water or milk is often recommended to draw off the strong ammoniac edge, though this recipe does not call for it.
- QuantitiesAn ox kidney runs about 1 to 1.5 lb; four sheep's kidneys are perhaps 8 to 10 oz total, so the two options are not interchangeable in strength. A pint here is the British pint, 20 fl oz. Expect a somewhat stronger, more mineral gravy from the ox.
- Bunch of sweet herbsStandard nineteenth-century shorthand for parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string, sometimes with marjoram. Tie it so you can lift it out; the recipe expects everything to be strained anyway.
- Dredge and brown properlyThe flour coating both thickens and colours. Fry over decent heat until the slices are genuinely browned and a fond has formed in the pan, then add the water off the boil and scrape the base clean. Pale kidney gives a thin, grey gravy that no amount of simmering will rescue.
- ReductionA pint of water simmered ninety minutes will fall well short of the pint of finished gravy claimed. Keep the lid mostly on and top up with a little hot water if it reduces below about 20 fl oz, or start with 24 fl oz.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is specified, perhaps because the gravy was destined for an already seasoned dish. Season after straining, tasting for salt only at the end since reduction concentrates it.
- What to do with the kidneyAfter an hour and a half the slices are spent and are discarded with the solids. If you want kidney to eat as well, fry a separate batch briefly and keep it out of the long simmer.
- KeepingRefrigerate up to three days, or freeze in an ice-cube tray for use by the spoonful. It will thicken on cooling from the dredging flour; skim the fat cap before reheating.
This belongs to the family of "made gravies" that Victorian kitchens produced in advance and drew on all week, alongside brown gravy, veal gravy and glaze. Offal was intensely flavoured, and kidney gave a dark, savoury liquor far faster than a bone stock. The same logic underlies steak and kidney pudding and pie, where a little kidney is used less for its own texture than for the depth it lends the gravy around the beef. "Sweet herbs", for what it's worth, is generally taken to have meant simply the fragrant kitchen herbs as opposed to the pot herbs (onion, celery, carrot) used as vegetables.