Kidney Soup

Ingredients

• A PINT and a quarter of good domestic stock
• two sheep’s kidneys
• a dessert-spoonful of dried thyme
• a dessert-spoonful of marjoram
• a bay-leaf
• a saltspoonful of spice
• half an ounce of butter
• half an ounce of flour
• a cupful of the stock
• a tablespoonful of claret
• a teaspoonful of red currant jelly
• half a teaspoonful of French vinegar
• sufficient Parisian essence to give the soup a warm brown tint

Method

1. 1

   Wash, dry, and slit the kidneys, then blanch in boiling salted water for one minute.

2. 2

   Simmer in stock with herbs until tender.

3. 3

   Mince and pound with anchovy, then strain.

4. 4

   Melt butter, stir in flour, add stock and kidney paste gradually, boil, skim, and add claret, jelly, vinegar, and essence.

5. 5

   Serve with fried bread.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Fifty dinners (1895) by A. R. Kenney-Herbert, page 29. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

A PINT and a quarter of good domestic stock will be enough for this soup with two sheep’s kidneys. Treat the latter as follows : — Wash them, dry them, slit them in halves, skin them, and ' . . , . ’ pH7't'e. plunge them immediately into boiling water well salted ; let them remain in this bath over the fire for one minute only, take them out, and dry them in a napkin. This is an infallible recipe for the removal of that peculiar taste which many people dislike in kidneys ; it should be followed always, no matter how you intend to cook them. Well, having thus blanched the kidneys, proceed to simmer them gently in half a pint of stock, with a bag containing a dessert-spoonful of dried thyme, marjoram, and bay-leaf, mixed with a saltspoonful of spice, &c., till they are very tender. Take them out, mince and pound them in the mortar, with one well-washed fillet of anchovy: when suffi- ciently pounded, pass the paste through a wire sieve to get rid of fibre, gristle, &c., then pound again, and 6 65 66 FIFTY DINNERS. pass all through a hair sieve. When ready, place the stock in a bowl handy, straining into it the broth in which the kidneys were stewed, and keep the kidney paste ready in a soup plate. Take a quart stewpan, melt half an ounce of butter at the bottom of it over the fire, stir in half an ounce of flour ; when nice and creamy, add a cupful of the stock, stirring vigorously, and continue to add stock and kidney paste by degrees, working them well together, till you have used them up ; now let the puree come to the boil, skim, and add a tablespoonful of claret, a teaspoonful of red currant jelly, half a teaspoonful of French vinegar, and suffi- cient Parisian essence to give the soup a warm brown tin

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.