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Pig's Kidneys, Fried
Peel the kidneys, cut them into slices, dip them in clarified butter, and afterwards into a mixture, made of two finely-minced shallots, two table-spoonfuls of chopped parsley, a pinch of powdered thyme, and a little pepper and salt. Fry them in an ounce of butter until they are lightly browned, put them into a hot dish, and mix with the butter two table-spoonfuls of thick brown gravy and two table-spoonfuls of claret. Boil the sauce, pour it over the kidneys, and serve hot. If no gravy is at hand, take the kidneys up, mix a tea-spoonful of flour smoothly with the butter in the pan, and add a wine-glassful of boiling water, a dessert-spoonful of mushroom-ketchup, a little salt and cayenne, and a glassful of claret. Boil the sauce, and strain it over the kidneys. Time to fry, six minutes. Probable cost of pig's kidneys, 6d. to 8d. each. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A straightforward pan dish that depends almost entirely on not overcooking the kidneys. The Victorian instruction of six minutes is about right only if the slices are thin and the pan is hot.
- Peel means skin and core"Peel the kidneys" means strip off the thin outer membrane and cut out the pale gristly core at the centre. Leaving the membrane on makes the slices curl and toughen in the pan.
- Slice thicknessCut across into slices about 1/4 inch thick. At that size six minutes over a brisk heat is enough. Kidney taken well past the point of doneness goes grainy and ammoniac.
- SoakingPig's kidney is stronger than lamb's. Slices can be soaked in milk or lightly salted water for 20-30 minutes and patted dry before cooking; the recipe gives no such step.
- Clarified butterMelted butter with the milk solids skimmed and the watery layer discarded. Its purpose here is glue, so the shallot and herb mixture clings; plain melted butter works but sticks less well.
- Spoon measuresA dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons; a wine-glassful in Victorian cookery books is conventionally reckoned at roughly 2 fl oz (1/4 cup).
- The second sauce is the practical oneFew kitchens keep thick brown gravy, so the alternative given at the end - a teaspoon of flour worked into the pan butter, boiling water, mushroom ketchup, cayenne, claret - is the version to use. Mushroom ketchup is still sold; it is thin, dark and salty, not tomato-based.
- Rest the kidneys out of the sauceTake them out while the sauce boils, as instructed, then pour over at the last moment. Boiling the kidneys in the sauce even briefly undoes the frying.
- YieldThe book says sufficient for two or three persons but does not state how many kidneys; as a main course allow one kidney per person with mashed potato or toast to take the sauce.
Kidney cookery of this kind was associated with the Victorian breakfast and supper table more than with dinner, and Cassell's gives a number of variations - grilled, stewed, devilled, in gravy - offal being cheap, quick and widely sold by butchers. The price note of sixpence to eightpence each marks it as a cheap dish, dressed up with claret and mushroom ketchup to give economical meat the depth of a longer-cooked dish. Pig's kidney was generally reckoned stronger and coarser in flavour than lamb's or calf's, and the assertive shallot, parsley and thyme coating here is doing the work of masking that strength.