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Broiled Calves' Kidneys
Neatly trim off the fat and skin from three very fresh calves' kidneys and split them in two. Mix on a plate a tablespoon of oil with teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Repeatedly turn the kidneys in the seasoning, arrange them on a double broiler and broil for four minutes on each side. Dress them on a hot dish. Spread a maitre d'hotel butter over them and serve.
A three-ingredient grill recipe where nearly everything depends on heat and timing. Calves' kidneys are mild and tender but turn grainy and bitter the moment they are cooked through.
- The hinge: do not overcookKidneys should come off the fire still rosy at the centre, firm but yielding. Past that point the texture goes rubbery and the flavour turns strong and ammoniacal. Four minutes a side suggests a much fiercer fire than a modern appliance gives; under a domestic broiler set as high as it goes, or in a preheated cast-iron grill pan, work from about two to three minutes a side for split halves and check by touch.
- "Double broiler"Not a double boiler. This is a hinged wire basket that clamps the food between two grids so it can be turned over the coals in one motion. A grill pan or a wire rack set close under the broiler element does the same job; a flat metal or bamboo skewer run through each half keeps it from curling.
- TrimmingThe white core of fat and gristle at the hollow of the kidney should come out along with the outer membrane, which shrinks and toughens. Veal kidney does not need the long soaking that beef or pork kidney does, though half an hour in cold water or milk is common practice and does no harm.
- "Very fresh"Taken literally. Offal spoils faster than muscle meat, and a kidney with any sour or sharply ammoniacal smell should not be grilled. Buy it the day you cook it, from a butcher rather than a tray.
- Maître d'hôtel butterThe book assumes you know it: softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice and salt and pepper, rolled in paper and chilled, then sliced onto the hot meat. Roughly 4 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon parsley and 2 teaspoons lemon juice suits three kidneys.
- Oil and seasoningThe tablespoon of oil is a coating, not a marinade, and the seasoning goes on just before the heat rather than as a cure. Turning the halves repeatedly on the plate is how they get an even film; drain them briefly so the oil does not flare.
- YieldThree kidneys, split, serves three as a first course or two at breakfast. Serve on plates warmed enough to keep the butter melting, with toast or watercress.
Grilled kidneys belong to the great age of the savoury breakfast and the club chop-house, when broiling a piece of offal over coals and finishing it with a compound butter was standard hotel practice on both sides of the Channel. Maître d'hôtel butter, whose name is often said to mark it as the headwaiter's or house standby, was the reflex garnish for anything that came off a grill, and appears throughout the international cookbooks of this period. Veal kidney was prized above beef for its mildness; that it now reads as an unusual dish reflects the twentieth-century retreat from offal in English-speaking kitchens rather than any change in the ingredient itself.