Home › B › Beef Kidney, To Dress (INGREDIENTS for small dish)
Beef Kidney, to Dress (INGREDIENTS for small dish)
INGREDIENTS for small dish.-1 kidney, 1 dessertspoonful of minced parsley, 1 teaspoonful of minced shalot, salt and pepper to tastle, 1/4 pint of gravy (follow one of the gravy recipes); if there be no gravy or stock at hand, 2 tablespoonfuls of sherry. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 3d.
Take off a little of the kidney fat, mince it very fine, and put it in a frying-pan; slice the kidney, sprinkle over it parsley and shalots in the above proportion, add a seasoning of pepper and salt, and fry it of a nice brown. When it is done enough, dredge over a little flour, and pour in the gravy and sherry. Let it just simmer, but not boil any more, or the kidney would harden; serve very hot, and garnish with croûtons. Where the flavour of the shalot is disliked it may be omitted, and a small quatity of savoury herbs substituted for it.
TIME. From 5 to 10 minutes, according to the thickness of the slices.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A quick pan dish that lives or dies on heat control: the kidney is browned fast, then barely warmed through in its own sauce.
- The hinge: never let it boilOnce the gravy goes in, keep the pan at a bare simmer. Boiling tightens kidney protein and turns it rubbery, which is exactly what the original warns against.
- Quantities and yieldA beef (ox) kidney generally runs from about a pound upward; the recipe describes this as a "small dish", so expect two or three modest servings. A dessertspoonful is about 2 teaspoons; a teaspoonful of minced shallot is rather less than one small shallot.
- A quarter pint of gravyBeeton's pint is the imperial 20 fl oz, so 1/4 pint is 5 fl oz, a scant 2/3 cup. Use good beef stock reduced until it coats a spoon if you have no made gravy.
- Soak and trim firstHalve the kidney, cut out the white core and any tubes, and soak the slices in cold salted water or milk for 30 minutes to draw off the ammoniac tang, then dry them thoroughly or they will steam instead of brown. The original has the cook removing the fat, so the kidney arrives whole.
- Slice thickness sets the time"From 5 to 10 minutes" refers to the frying. At 1/4 inch thick, 2 to 3 minutes a side over high heat is enough; the centre should stay faintly pink.
- Rendering the fatMincing the suet and melting it in the pan is the original's frying medium. Two tablespoons of beef dripping, or butter and oil together, does the same job if the kidney comes without its fat.
- Shallot then and nowShalot then and now -- "Shalot" is simply the shallot. If you substitute savoury herbs as the original allows, thyme and marjoram suit well.
- Crou00fbtonsCroûtons -- Not the salad kind. Pieces of bread fried until crisp, arranged round the dish to catch the sauce.
Kidney was cheap, quick and always in season, which is why it turns up throughout Victorian cookery as a breakfast dish, a supper savoury and a filling for pies and puddings. The meat was among the least expensive protein a household could buy, and recipes like this one exist to make a small quantity of strongly flavoured meat stretch with gravy and fried bread. Beef kidney is firmer and more strongly flavoured than lamb's or veal's, hence the parsley, shallot and wine, and hence the insistence on brief cooking. The book's habit of giving a price, a time and a season for every entry reflects its purpose as a manual for mistresses managing a budget and a servant, rather than a collection for pleasure reading.