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Fried Beef Kidneys with Champagne
Select some kidneys that are of a good color, remove a little of the fat, mince them, mix with a little chopped parsley and shallots, and season with salt and pepper. Place this in a fryingpan over a moderate fire, and when done dust over with flour, add a wineglassful of champagne and two or three tablespoonfuls of bechamel sauce, and serve.
A three-minute sauté dressed up with champagne and a spoonful of sauce — the whole thing succeeds or fails on heat and timing. Beef kidney turns grainy and bitter the moment it goes past medium.
- The hinge: do not overcookMinced kidney is done in two to three minutes over brisk heat, when the pink has just gone from the outside and the cut faces are still faintly rosy within. Held on the fire until uniformly grey it becomes rubbery and the ammoniacal edge comes forward. The flour, wine and sauce go in at the end purely to bind, not to stew the meat further.
- Trimming, which the recipe skims"Remove a little of the fat" understates the job: beef kidney needs the whole suet core and the white membrane and ducts cut out, or the dish will taste acrid. Many cooks then soak the trimmed pieces in cold salted water or milk for an hour and pat them dry; wet kidney will steam rather than fry.
- "Mince" hereNot ground. In period usage this means chopped small by hand into dice or thin strips, so the pieces sear rather than release liquid.
- A wineglassfulIn American cookbooks of this period a wineglass is usually reckoned at about 2 fluid ounces — a quarter cup. Any dry sparkling wine works; the point is the acid, and it should reduce by half in a few seconds against the hot pan.
- Moderate fireThe recipe says moderate; on a modern burner read this as medium to medium-high. A pan hot enough to sear but not smoke; too gentle and the kidney weeps and boils in its own juice.
- BéchamelTwo or three tablespoons of a thick, well-seasoned white sauce, made ahead. It is the whole sauce base here, so it should already taste finished — a thin or floury béchamel will show.
- Shallots and flourAdd the shallots and parsley with the kidney rather than before it, since they scorch quickly at searing heat. The dusting of flour wants ten or fifteen seconds in the fat before liquid goes in, so it loses its raw taste.
- Yield and servingA pound of trimmed kidney serves three or four as a first course or a savoury. Serve immediately on toast points or in pastry cases; it will not hold, and reheating ruins it.
Kidneys were standard hotel breakfast and savoury fare in the 1890s and 1900s, and the volume of a hotel butchery meant the whole animal had to be sold. The champagne in the pan sauce is an easy luxury flourish, its acidity cutting the mineral richness of the kidney much as the more familiar mustard or sherry does in the English devilled version. Béchamel to finish reflects the French grounding of American hotel cooking in this generation, where a quick sauté might be closed with a spoonful of one of the mother sauces.