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Lamb Kidneys, Caesar
Skin, without cutting them, twelve fresh lamb kidneys, place in a frying pan with one tablespoon melted lard, fry to a light colour, take up with fork and place them in a cocotte dish. Cut two ounces lean raw pork in half-inch-square pieces and fry for five minutes in pan in which kidneys were cooked, lift up pieces with skimmer and place with kidneys.
Cut two large, peeled raw potatoes in half-inch-square pieces, fry in same pan for ten minutes, drain and add to cocotte dish with the rest. Finely chop six sound shallots, two branches parsley, one branch chervil and twelve branches chives, then sprinkle this mixture evenly over the kidneys, and so on. Season with a light teaspoon salt and a half teaspoon pepper, pour in half gill white wine and gill tomato sauce, cover cocotte, set in oven for one hour, remove and serve in cocotte without uncovering.
A one-pot braise of kidneys, salt pork and potatoes in a lidded pot. The instructions are complete except for the oven temperature, which the original assumes you know.
- The cocotteIn this period a cocotte is a small lidded casserole or cast-iron pot that goes from stove to oven to table. A 2-quart Dutch oven or covered baking dish does the job; the recipe's instruction to serve it still covered means the lid is lifted for the first time at the table, presumably for the rush of herb steam.
- Oven heatNone is given. A covered braise of this kind wants a moderate oven, 325-350F, for the hour specified. Higher and the wine and tomato sauce reduce to a scorched glaze before the potatoes are done.
- GillsA gill is half a cup. So half a gill of white wine is 1/4 cup and a gill of tomato sauce is 1/2 cup — about 3/4 cup of liquid total for twelve kidneys, which is a braise, not a stew.
- Preparing the kidneys"Skin, without cutting them" means peeling off the thin outer membrane while leaving the kidney whole. Modern practice is to snip out the white core and gristle at the hinge, which carries more of the ammoniac taste than the flesh, and to soak them half an hour in cold salted water or milk before patting dry — though the recipe calls for neither, and its "without cutting" suggests the kidneys were left entirely intact.
- The lean raw porkTwo ounces of lean fresh pork cut in half-inch dice — pork shoulder or the meaty end of a slab of unsmoked belly. Not bacon, which would push the whole dish toward smoke.
- An hour is long for kidneysAn hour of covered, moist heat is more than kidneys usually get, and the timing looks to be set by the potatoes rather than the offal. Left whole and sealed under a lid with liquid they should survive it; cut up first, they would be tough well before the hour is out.
- HerbsChervil is seasonal and often unavailable; parsley with a few tarragon leaves is a common modern substitute. Add the shallot-herb mixture as directed, raw and on top, rather than frying it — the recipe is explicit on that point.
- Tomato sauceNot ketchup and not a seasoned pasta sauce. The tomato sauce of a kitchen like this was a cooked, sieved tomato sauce built on a roux with aromatics and stock; failing that, canned passata or a thin tomato purée is closer than anything jarred.
- YieldTwelve lamb kidneys serve four generously as a main course, or six at a larger meal. The lard can be replaced with any neutral fat or oil with little loss.
The International Cook Book belongs to the era of the grand hotel and restaurant kitchen, where nearly every dish carried a garnish name — a person, a city, an opera — as shorthand for its treatment; whatever "Caesar" refers to here, it has nothing to do with the later Caesar salad. The dish itself is a classic en cocotte preparation: everything browned separately in one pan, layered into a small lidded pot, moistened lightly and finished in the oven so that the lid is lifted for the first time at the table. Offal held a much steadier place on menus then than now, and lamb kidneys in particular were cheap, quick and considered breakfast and supper food alike in Britain, France and American hotel dining rooms. The pairing with diced fresh pork and potato follows a simple enough logic — a little fat, a little starch, a lot of shallot and chives — dressed up for a restaurant service book.