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Veal Kidney Fritter
Put four or five eggs into a basin, beat them well, add one teacupful of cream, a little finely-shred parsley, cloves and chopped mushrooms, seasoning with pounded mace, salt and pepper. Mince fine the required quantity of kidney, together with a little of the fat adhering to it, and stir this in with the egg mixture. Butter a fryingpan and place it on the fire; when hot pour in the mixture and stir it until cooked, using care not to spread it out too thin. Remove the pan from the fire, brown the mixture with a salamander, or by holding the pan in front of the fire, and serve immediately.
This is a kidney omelette in the old sense — a thick, stirred egg cake finished under heat rather than folded. The whole thing hinges on the kidney being minced very fine, since it gets only the few minutes the eggs take to set.
- The quantity of kidneyThe original says "the required quantity" and leaves it to the cook. For five eggs, one veal kidney (around 8 oz once trimmed) is a reasonable reading; too much and the mixture may not set cleanly.
- Preparing the kidneyVeal kidney comes encased in fat with a tough white core at the centre. Peel the membrane, cut out the core and any tubes, and chop the meat to a near paste; leave a tablespoon or so of the surrounding fat in as directed. A 20-minute soak in cold salted water or milk takes the edge off the smell.
- A teacupfulPeriod sources vary; reckon somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup. Heavy cream is right here -- the fat keeps the eggs tender.
- Cloves and maceBoth would have been whole and pounded in a mortar. Use a scant pinch of each, ground: two or three cloves' worth at most, or the spice buries the kidney.
- SalamanderA cast-iron disc on a handle, heated red and passed over food to brown it. Your broiler does the same job in a minute or two, provided the pan handle is ovenproof.
- Don't spread it thinThe instruction is deliberate. Use an 8-inch pan for five eggs so the mixture stays thick enough to remain custardy in the centre while the top browns.
- TimingStir over moderate heat until the eggs are set, as the recipe directs, then brown the top. The finely minced kidney needs to be cooked through; pushed too far the mixture turns grainy and the eggs weep.
- YieldThree to four servings as a breakfast or luncheon dish. Serve straight from the pan, as the recipe insists — it collapses as it cools.
Kidney at breakfast was unremarkable in the hotel dining rooms of Oscar Tschirky's era, and veal kidney was the aristocrat of the category: milder and finer-grained than beef or pork. The dish sits in a family of stirred, spiced egg preparations that English and American cookery called fritters, puddings or omelets. Mace and cloves with offal is an older seasoning instinct still, from a time when warm spices were often said to suit strongly flavoured meats.