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Mutton Kidneys, Bread-Crumbed
Take three or four mutton kidneys, cut them open from the rounded part without separating them; take off the thin skin, and pass a small skewer through the points and over the back to keep them flat. Dissolve an ounce of butter in a frying-pan, dip each of the kidneys in this, and afterwards strew some finely-grated bread-crumbs over them. Broil them over a clear fire for six minutes, three minutes each side, and serve them neatly on a hot dish. Probable cost, 4d. each. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A plain grill that lives or dies on heat and timing: six minutes total is not an approximation but the whole point, since kidneys turn granular and tough the moment they pass medium.
- The hinge: do not overcookThree minutes a side over fierce heat leaves the centre rosy and the texture yielding. Push them to well done and they go dry and faintly bitter, which is the usual reason people say they dislike kidneys.
- Butterflying and skeweringCutting "from the rounded part without separating them" means splitting the kidney along its convex edge and opening it out flat like a book, leaving the hinge at the core. A soaked wooden skewer or two metal ones run crosswise through the points hold it open so it cooks evenly instead of curling.
- Skin and coreThe "thin skin" is the translucent membrane, which peels away easily with dry fingers and will shrink and buckle the kidney if left on. Snip out the pale gristly core at the hinge with scissors as well; the original does not mention this step.
- A clear fireThis means charcoal or coals burnt down past the flame and smoke stage: intense, steady, dry heat. A very hot grill pan or a gas grill on high does the same job; a domestic overhead broiler at full heat, with the rack close, is the nearest indoor equivalent.
- The crumbs"Finely-grated bread-crumbs" are dried crumbs grated from stale bread, closer to fine dry crumb than to fresh or panko. An ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons, and the kidneys should be dipped while it is warm and liquid so the crumbs stick; press them on rather than strewing, or most will fall into the fire.
- Watch the crustDry crumbs over direct high heat scorch faster than the meat cooks. Keep the kidneys a little further from the coals than you would for a plain chop, and turn once only.
- ServingThree or four kidneys serve two or three persons, as stated. They want something sharp: mustard butter, a squeeze of lemon, or watercress, and buttered toast underneath to catch the juices.
Mutton kidneys belong to the Victorian breakfast and the late supper "savoury", both meals built on small, strongly flavoured, quickly grilled things. The book gives the cost as fourpence each, which places them among the cheap protein of a middle-class household — offal was priced far below joint meat, and a dish that fed three for a shilling was worth printing. Mutton itself has all but vanished from British and American butchers, sheep now being sold young as lamb; lamb kidneys are milder and smaller, and the sharper, more mineral mutton kidney the writer had in mind is largely a matter of record rather than experience.