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February 23
Menu: Red Cabbage Soup; Broiled Kidneys with Green Peppers; French Peas Fried Bananas; Grapefruit and White Grape Salad; Cheese Balls; Russian Jelly; Coffee; Broiled Kidneys with Green Peppers; -Split some fine beef kidneys, re-; move the outer skin and sinews, and; wipe well. Sprinkle the kidneys; with pepper and salt, and let stand; for an hour or more. Dip them then,; into melted Crisco and broil over a; clear fire. Meanwhile, chop 2 green; peppers, freed from their seeds, and; fry with 1/2 a teaspoon chopped onion; and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley in; Crisco till the pepper is quite done,; having no more moisture, or Crisco; that is in the pan, than is necessary; to cook the green peppers. Dish the; kidneys and surround with the sauce; of green peppers.
A quick broiled-offal dish from the promotional cookbook Procter & Gamble issued for its new vegetable shortening. The instructions assume a coal or wood fire and a cook who handles kidneys weekly; both need a little translation.
- The hinge: do not overcookKidney is done the moment it stops being red at the center — roughly 3 to 4 minutes a side under a hot broiler. Past that point it tightens into rubber and turns strongly ammoniac, which is the usual reason people decide they dislike kidneys.
- Beef kidney needs soakingThe recipe says only to skin, remove sinews and wipe. Beef (as opposed to lamb) kidney is assertive, and an hour in cold salted water or milk, drained and dried, softens the flavor considerably. Cut out the white core and fat at the center as well as the outer membrane.
- CriscoAny neutral solid shortening, or simply melted butter or a light oil, does the same job here — it is a coating to keep the meat from sticking and drying. The book names Crisco at every opportunity because that was its purpose.
- "A clear fire"Coals burned down past flame and smoke, glowing evenly. A gas or electric broiler preheated fully, with the rack close to the element, is the equivalent; a very hot ridged grill pan also works.
- The hour of standingSalting and peppering an hour ahead is a dry brine and worth keeping, though for kidney it also means the surface dries and browns better. Pat off any expressed liquid before the fat goes on.
- The pepper garnishTwo green bell peppers, seeded and chopped; half a teaspoon of chopped onion is a very small amount, and the recipe means it. Cook them in a spoonful or two of fat over moderate heat until soft and the pan is dry — 10 to 15 minutes. The parsley is better added in the last minute than at the start.
- Quantity"Some fine beef kidneys" is unhelpful. A single beef kidney, roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb once trimmed, will feed three to four people with the pepper garnish; the amounts given for peppers and onion suit about that scale.
- ServingToast, fried bread or plain boiled rice under the kidneys catches the juices, which are the best part.
The Story of Crisco (1913), written by Marion Harris Neil for Procter & Gamble, was published two years after Crisco itself went on sale in 1911 as the first widely marketed hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Its job was to prove that a cook could use one fat for everything — frying, pastry, cake, and here basting meat over a fire. Broiled kidneys belong to the older tradition of savory breakfast and luncheon dishes that came into American cooking from Britain, where devilled and grilled kidneys were standard sideboard fare; the green peppers and onion are the American touch, and place the dish among the many turn-of-the-century recipes that treated the bell pepper as a fashionable novelty vegetable.