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Veal Kidneys, Roasted
Take two veal kidneys from a loin of veal which has been roasted until done enough. Mince them finely with some fat, and add a table-spoonful of flavouring made of mushrooms which have been stewed in butter, then chopped small, and mixed with parsley, thyme, and onion also fried. Season the forcemeat with salt and cayenne, and bind it together with raw egg. Cut one or two slices of stale crumb of bread into neat shapes. Fry these in hot fat till they are brightly browned on both sides, then drain them, and spread the forcemeat upon them half an inch thick. Brush the surface over with yolk of egg, and sprinkle bread-crumbs upon it. Place the pieces of bread thus prepared on a very hot dish, place a dish-cover over them, and serve immediately.
This is a Victorian savoury built on leftovers from a roast loin — but the binding and finishing steps mean the dish reaches the table with uncooked egg and barely warm offal in it. The notes below explain the vocabulary and the reason it cannot be made as printed.
- Why it fails: the raw egg is never cookedThe forcemeat is bound with raw egg, spread half an inch thick, brushed with more raw yolk, crumbed, and then only set on a hot dish under a cover. Nothing in the method brings the egg above the temperature at which Salmonella is destroyed; a heated plate and a cloche will not do it through half an inch of dense mince.
- Why it fails: warm offal held in the danger zoneMinced cooked offal -- The kidneys come from a joint 'roasted until done enough', so they have been cooked; the recipe does not say whether they are used hot or cold. Mincing greatly increases the surface area available to bacteria, and the fried bread and covered hot dish do not reheat the mixture through. The recipe does direct immediate service, so holding time is short; the unresolved problem is the raw egg rather than the kidney itself.
- "Flavouring" here means a prepared mushroom mixtureThe tablespoonful of "flavouring" is not a bottled essence but the compound described in the same sentence: mushrooms stewed in butter, chopped fine, and combined with fried parsley, thyme and onion.
- ForcemeatIn this period the word covers any seasoned minced-meat mixture, whether it is used as stuffing, as a quenelle, or spread on a croûte as here. It does not imply a forcing bag.
- "Stale crumb of bread"The crumb is the soft interior, crust removed, from a loaf a day or two old. Fresh bread collapses and drinks fat; stale crumb fries to a firm croûte that will carry a topping.
- Dish-coverA domed metal cover, warmed alongside the plates. Such covers were made in a range of metals, from tinned iron and pewter to plate and silver. Its purpose was to hold heat between kitchen and dining room in houses where the two were far apart -- it was never intended to cook anything.
- CayenneCayenne appears frequently as the seasoning of Victorian savouries. The strength and composition of period cayenne varied, so the quantity implied here cannot be read directly against a modern jar.
Cassell's places this among the small hot savouries that closed a late-Victorian dinner, served after the sweet and before the dessert of fruit and nuts — anchovy toast, devilled kidneys and mushrooms on croûtes belong to the same family. A roast loin of veal arrives at table with its kidneys still attached and fatted, and spreading the minced trimmings on fried bread turned an offcut into a course. The croûte format, a fried bread base carrying a seasoned mince, is often said to descend from the medieval trencher, where bread was the plate as well as the sop, though the line is more traditional than documented. The insistence on a very hot dish and a cover, repeated throughout books of this era, is a reminder of how far food travelled from basement kitchen to dining room in a large Victorian house.