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Stewed Ox Kidney
Cut the kidney in thin slices and soak a few minutes in lukewarm water; drain and dry in a cloth. Sprinkle the slices with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and fry in a tablespoonful of butter or nice drippings until slightly browned. Add enough water or thin stock to cover it, and season with a shallot (chopped), a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a little cayenne, and a dessertspoonful of vinegar. Stew gently for an hour or more, until very tender. Thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed smooth with a tablespoonful of butter, and serve very hot.
A straightforward braise that depends almost entirely on gentle heat and enough time. Ox kidney is beef kidney, and it is tough and strongly flavoured until it has stewed long past the point where it looks done.
- The hinge: never let it boilKidney toughens and turns grainy at a rolling boil. Keep the pan at a bare shiver for the full hour or longer; the recipe's "an hour or more, until very tender" is the real measure, and time at a gentle heat is what tenderises the slices.
- Ox kidneyBeef kidney from a butcher, multi-lobed and encased in hard white suet; the recipe gives no weight, but a single kidney of around 1 to 2 lb is what is meant. Trim off the fat and cut out the pale central core before slicing; the core is usually blamed for the ammoniac smell.
- The soakThe recipe asks only for a few minutes in lukewarm water. A longer soak in cold salted water or milk is often suggested for kidney, and either way the slices must be patted thoroughly dry, since wet slices will not brown.
- Drippings"Nice drippings" means clean saved beef or bacon fat. The recipe treats butter as an equal alternative; if you use butter alone, keep the heat moderate, or cut it with a neutral oil.
- DessertspoonfulTwo teaspoons, roughly. The vinegar is there to cut the richness rather than to be tasted, so start at that quantity and adjust at the end.
- ShallotOne small shallot, finely chopped. In a book of this period the word sometimes covers a green onion or scallion, and either works here.
- The final thickeningEqual butter and flour rubbed to a paste is a beurre manié. Whisk it in a pinch at a time off the boil, then return to a low simmer for two or three minutes to cook out the raw flour.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantity; one kidney will serve about three or four as an entrée. Mashed potato, boiled rice or plain toast all take the gravy well.
Kidney was cheap protein in the period household, and books of this kind treated offal as an entrée rather than an afterthought. Ox kidney in particular was the strong-flavoured, hard-working cut, generally cheaper than lamb's or veal kidney and reserved for long stewing rather than the quick grilling given to the milder kinds. The vinegar, cayenne and parsley in this version do the same job as the same trio in countless period offal dishes: they sharpen and lift a meat whose natural flavour many diners found assertive. Its best-known relative is steak and kidney pudding, where beef kidney stewed in much this manner is bound in gravy and shut inside a suet crust.