Home › The Principles of Cookery › Sheep's Kidneys, Stewed
Sheep's Kidneys, Stewed
Skin and halve half a dozen sheep's kidneys, and cut them into slices a quarter of an inch thick. Fry these in butter till they are lightly browned, dredge a little flour over them, pour in a glassful of sherry, and add a tea-spoonful of chopped parsley, a finely-minced shallot, three or four mushrooms chopped small, a teaspoonful of lemon-juice, and a little pepper and salt. Stir the preparation over the fire for five or six minutes, and serve very hot. Time, twenty minutes. Probable cost, kidneys, 4d. to 6d. each. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A fast saute masquerading as a stew: the whole thing lives or dies on how long the kidneys stay over the heat. Everything else is seasoning.
- Do not overcookSliced lamb kidney needs a couple of minutes a side to brown and no more than three or four minutes in the sauce. Past that they tighten, weep, and turn granular; the recipe itself asks for only five or six minutes over the fire after browning, so the twenty-minute total in the headnote probably allows for preparation as well.
- Trimming"Skin and halve" means peel off the membrane and split each kidney lengthwise, then cut out the pale gristly core at the hinge with scissors or a small knife. Left in, it stays rubbery no matter what you do.
- Sheep's kidneysThese are what a modern butcher sells as lamb's kidneys, about 2 oz each. Six of them is roughly 12 oz. Pig or veal kidney can substitute but is stronger and larger; beef kidney is too coarse for this treatment.
- A glassful of sherryA Victorian wine glass is about 2 fl oz, a sherry glass rather less. Half a cup is the outside limit here, or the pan will be soup. A dry amontillado or fino suits the dish better than a sweet cream sherry.
- The flour dredgeA scant tablespoon over the browned slices is enough to bind the sherry and the kidney juices into a light gravy. Let it cook in the butter for a few seconds before the wine goes in or the sauce tastes pasty.
- MushroomsThree or four small button mushrooms, chopped fine. They go in after the wine, along with the parsley and shallot, and will not brown; they are there for savour rather than texture.
- Yield"Four or five persons" implies small portions served alongside other dishes. As a main course with rice or mashed potato it feeds two or three.
- CostFourpence to sixpence each is pre-decimal British currency, priced per kidney, so six would come to two or three shillings.
Kidneys belong to the great Victorian and Edwardian breakfast sideboard, where devilled and stewed offal sat in covered chafing dishes alongside bacon and kedgeree — cheap, quick to cook, and considered strengthening. The method demonstrates a basic principle: brown in fat, dredge with flour, deglaze with wine, finish with acid and herbs. The shallot, parsley, mushroom and lemon combination recalls French garnish practice of the kind absorbed into English domestic cooking in this period.