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MUTTON KIDNEYS, BROILED (another way.)
Take three or four sheep's kidneys, cut them open lengthwise from the round part without dividing them; put a small skewer through the ends and over the back so as to keep them flat. Sprinkle salt and pepper over them, and slightly oil them; then broil them over a clear fire for six minutes, three minutes each side; put them on a hot dish with the rounded side downwards. Probable cost, 4d. each. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A four-line Victorian breakfast dish that survives largely unchanged; the only real work is in the preparation before the kidneys touch the fire.
- Buy them whole and freshLamb kidneys (the modern trade calls them lamb rather than mutton) are usually sold loose or vacuum-packed, sometimes still in their jacket of hard white suet. Peel that away, and peel off the thin transparent membrane beneath it as well or the kidneys will curl and buckle on the grill.
- Butterflied, not halved"Cut them open lengthwise from the round part without dividing them" means splitting through the convex outer edge and opening the kidney like a book, leaving the hinge at the core intact. Snip out the white gristly core with scissors while it is open.
- The skewers are not optionalThe skewer is not optional -- the recipe calls for a single small skewer passed through the ends and over the back, holding the opened kidney flat against the heat; without it the muscle contracts into a cup and cooks unevenly. Soaked wooden skewers work but scorch over a hot fire.
- A clear fireA fire burnt down past flame and smoke to steady bright embers (coal or charcoal), or a well preheated overhead broiler. The point is dry radiant heat, not smoke and not a flame licking the meat.
- Six minutes is right, and the reason mattersThree minutes a side leaves the centre pink and the texture tender. Kidney passes from tender to grainy and ammoniac very quickly; another two minutes is the difference between the dish and a mistake.
- Rounded side downwardsThis puts the cut side up, so the hollow catches the juices that run out as they rest, which is the likely reason for the instruction. Butter and mustard dropped into the hollow at table is a common later addition, though this recipe calls only for salt, pepper and oil.
- Cost and yield"4d. each" is pre-decimal pence and tells you only that these were cheap. Three or four kidneys serve two generously at breakfast rather than the three or four the book claims, by modern appetites; allow two each if they are the main item.
Grilled kidneys belong to the Victorian and Edwardian breakfast sideboard, where they sat alongside bacon, kedgeree and cold game as one of the hot dishes kept over a spirit lamp. Offal was cheap, quick to cook and considered restorative, and sheep's kidneys in particular were small enough to grill to order in the few minutes between the gong and the table. Cassell's gives this as "another way" because the dictionary format collects variants side by side, and the title "BROILED (another way)" indicates a preceding broiled version. The dish never really left Britain, surviving in hotel breakfasts and in the mixed grill, though the habit of eating organ meats before nine in the morning has largely gone with the households that kept a cook to skewer them.