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Deviled Kidneys
Remove the skin from as many kidneys as may be required, parboil them in a small quantity of water, cut down the center and dip in warmed butter. Dust over with salt and pepper and a little cayenne if desired, broil over a clear fire, and serve on a dish with some butter worked in with minced parsley, pepper and salt.
Mutton Kidneys, French Style Skin the kidneys, cut them into quarters, put them into a fryingpan with a lump of butter, and fry them, dredging lightly over with flour. When the kidneys are nearly cooked, put in a few chopped mushrooms, some chopped shallots and parsley, and a small wineglassful of sherry or white wine, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper, and finish frying them, stirring constantly at the same time. When cooked, turn the kidneys on to a hot dish, garnish with slices of lemons, and serve.
Two related preparations run together in one paragraph: a broiled deviled kidney and a French-style sauté. Both assume lamb or mutton kidneys, and both hinge on not overcooking them.
- Which kidneysThe second preparation is headed "Mutton Kidneys"; the first names none, but lamb or mutton kidneys, small and roughly the size of an egg, are the likely intent. Veal kidney works but is larger and needs to be separated into lobes; beef kidney is usually reckoned too coarse and strong for either treatment.
- Skinning and coringPeel off the thin outer membrane, then split and cut out the white fatty core with the point of a knife. Left in, it stays chewy and carries most of the ammoniac smell people object to.
- The parboilA brief blanch — a minute or two in barely simmering water — firms the kidney and tames the odour. Anything longer starts to cook them through, and they will be leather by the time they come off the grill.
- "Warmed butter"Melted butter, ideally clarified so the milk solids do not scorch under high heat. Dip the split kidneys in it before seasoning so the pepper and cayenne stick.
- A clear fireA charcoal bed burnt down past the flames, or a modern broiler at full heat with the rack close. Three to four minutes a side is enough; the centre should stay rosy. Kidneys cooked to grey shrink and turn rubbery, and no butter will rescue them.
- The finishing butterButter worked with minced parsley, salt and pepper is essentially maitre d'hotel butter, though the classic version usually also carries lemon juice. Make it in advance, chill it, and set a coin of it on each hot kidney so it melts at the table.
- "Deviled"The heat here comes only from cayenne and black pepper. Many period devilling mixtures also included mustard, and a teaspoon of dry English mustard in the melted butter would not be out of keeping.
- A wineglassfulIn cookbooks of this era, about 2 fluid ounces, or a quarter cup. Add it to the pan off the direct heat and let it reduce to a glaze rather than boiling the kidneys in it.
- YieldTwo lamb kidneys per person for a first course or a savoury, three for a breakfast plate. Both dishes want toast or fried bread underneath to catch the butter.
Kidneys on the breakfast or supper table were an English inheritance that American hotel kitchens took up wholesale, and "deviled" — meaning seasoned hot with cayenne, mustard and pepper — had been standard English usage since at least the early nineteenth century for exactly this kind of grilled, highly spiced meat. Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's celebrated maître d'hôtel, compiled his 1896 book from the hotel's working repertoire, and the pairing here is characteristic of it: the English chophouse version and the French sauté with shallots, mushrooms and wine set side by side, because a New York hotel of the period was expected to produce either on demand. Offal was cheap and unglamorous in the market but perfectly respectable on a hotel menu, where a dish of kidneys turned up as a savoury at the end of dinner or as a substantial item at the late supper served after the theatre.