Broiled Kidneys (Mrs Beeton, 1861)

The Victorian way with lamb kidneys: split open, skewered flat, broiled a few minutes a side, and sent to the table with butter, “very hot and quickly.” Still the best quick method there is.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet. It is here because the Offal dive needed it, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 6 lamb (sheep’s) kidneys
• Salt and black pepper
• Butter
• Toast, to serve

Directions

1. Split. Cut each kidney open lengthwise, down to the root but without separating the halves.
2. Skin and trim. Peel off the thin outer membrane. Snip out the white fatty core with scissors.
3. Skewer flat. Open each kidney like a book and run a skewer through it crosswise to hold it flat.
4. Broil. Season with salt and pepper. Broil under high heat, cut side toward the heat first, 6 to 8 minutes in all, turning once. Leave them pink in the middle.
5. Serve. Remove the skewers, put a small piece of butter in the hollow of each kidney, and serve on hot plates or toast, “very hot and quickly.”

Notes

Source Mrs Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management (1861), “Broiled Kidneys” (recipe 724). The coring step is modern practice (Great British Chefs); Beeton does not mention it.

Kidneys Kidneys go rubbery between pink and braised, so cook them either very fast or very slowly. They keep only about a day in the refrigerator. Soaking them in milk or salt water is common practice, but no source was found that measured what it removes.

Also in the collection Steak and Kidney Pudding, and the U.S. Army’s Braised Kidneys.

The Offal dive on the Food site covers this part in depth.

The photo The photo shows Filipino grilled pork-kidney skewers (inihaw na bato), a close cousin of the method rather than Beeton’s lamb kidneys.