Kidney Stew
1 pound kidney 1 carrot. medium-sized onion 2 tablespoons flour 2 cups water 2 tablespoons drippings Scrape and slice carrot, peel and slice onion, and cook together in two cups of water until tender. Soak kidneys in water for one hour. Drain, clean and dry. Dredge with flour, slice, and brown in frying pan with drippings. Remove kidneys from frying pan, add flour to the fat and brown. Add to this the two cups of water in which the carrots and onions were cooked. Boil until thickened. Add kidneys, onion and carrots. Season with salt and pepper, cook for three minutes and serve.
A plain braise of beef or veal kidney with a browned-flour gravy, built from the vegetable cooking liquid rather than stock. The whole thing hinges on not overcooking the kidney.
- QuantitiesThe ingredient list as printed opens mid-line, so the weight of kidney and the number of carrots are not stated. For four servings, figure on about 1 lb of beef or veal kidney and one large carrot alongside the onion, flour, water and drippings given.
- The soak is not optionalBeef kidney carries a strong ammoniac smell that the hour in cold water draws out. Many cooks now soak in lightly salted water or milk, changing it once, and trim away the white core and any membrane before slicing.
- Three minutes means three minutesQuick-cooked kidney turns rubbery and grainy if taken much past medium. It is browned already; the final simmer is only to marry it with the gravy.
- DrippingsBeef or bacon fat, saved from earlier cooking. Any neutral fat works, but rendered beef fat gives the gravy the flavour the recipe assumes.
- Dredging orderThe recipe says to dredge with flour then slice; slice first, then flour the pieces, or the coating will not reach the cut faces. Dry the kidney thoroughly or the flour will not stick and the pieces will steam rather than brown.
- Browning the rouxFlour into the pan fat, cooked until it takes colour, then the two cups of vegetable water added and stirred smooth. Note that the listed 2 tablespoons of flour has to cover both the dredging and the thickening, so the amount going into the pan is a matter of judgement. Boil until thickened, long enough for the flour to lose its raw taste.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; the quantities suggest three or four servings. Stews of this kind were commonly spooned over boiled or mashed potatoes or toast, which the recipe leaves unsaid.
Kidney stew belongs to the thrift cooking that ran through American household manuals well into the twentieth century: organ meats were cheap, and household books of the period encouraged cooks to use the whole animal. The technique here is often taken as typical of that repertoire, a browned-flour gravy stretched with the water the vegetables were cooked in, which wastes neither the fat in the pan nor the flavour in the pot. Kidney's reputation as a poor man's cut is only part of the story, though; it was equally a staple of British and Irish cookery, and steak and kidney pudding kept it familiar on both sides of the Atlantic. Its decline in American kitchens after mid-century is usually attributed to rising incomes and a squeamishness about offal rather than to any change in the meat itself.