Kidney Soup

Ingredients

• six mutton kidneys
• an ounce of butter
• a tablespoonful of flour
• a cupful of consomme
• a glass of port
• a teaspoonful of red currant jelly
• a teaspoonful of good vinegar
• sufficient caramel coloring

Method

1. 1

   Wash, dry, and slit the kidneys in halves, then plunge them into boiling salted water for one minute.

2. 2

   Dry them, then boil gently with thyme, marjoram, and spices until tender.

3. 3

   Pound with an anchovy, sieve the paste.

4. 4

   Melt butter, stir in flour, add consomme and kidney paste gradually, boil, then add port, jelly, vinegar, and caramel coloring.

5. 5

   Serve with croutons.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Culinary jottings (1885) by A. R. Kenney-Herbert, page 254. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

six mutton kidneys and treat them as follows : — Wash them, dry them, slit them in halves, and plunge them immediately into boiling water well salted ; let them remain in this bath 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 boil them gently with some dried thyme, marjoram, and a bag containing spice, &c., till they are very tender. Take them out, and pound them in the mortar, with one well washed anchovy : when sufficiently pounded, pass the paste through a wire sieve to get rid of fibre, gi'istle, &c. When ready, place the consomme in a bowl handy, and keep the kidney paste MENU FOR A LITTLE HOME DINNER. 459 ready in a soup plate. Take a roomy sauce-pan, melt an ounce of butter at the bottom of it over the fire, stir in a table-spoonful of flour ; when nice and creamy, add a cup- ful of consomme, stirring vigorously, and continue to add consomme and kidney paste by degrees, working them well together, till you have used them up ; now let the puree come to the boil ; add a glass of port, a tea-spoonful of red currant jelly, a tea-spoonful of good vinegar, and sufficient caramel coloring to give the soup a warm brown tint, stir well for a minute over the fire, and serve with croutons of fried bread. A coffee-cupful of boiling cream, or a coffee-cupful of milk in which the yolk of an egg has been stirred, may be added to this soup off the fire for additional richness. -It will be found so like a game soup that many will doubt its having any connection with kidneys. After a day's hard work, a rich sustaining soup of this kind is often very acceptable. 2. — Choose a nice crab, have it boiled, cleaned, and picked : place the meat in a soup plate. Baked crab. , . . . -i , n -k a ^ and give it a dust oi black pepper. Boil till tender sufficient maccaroni to line the bottom of a small pie-dish, and grate a tea-cupful of mild cheese. Now rub the bottom of the pie-dish with butter, place the maccaroni thereon, and pour a coffee-cupful of well made white sauce over the maccaroni. Shake a dust of grated cheese over its surface. Next place the crab meat, well worked with melted butter, over the maccaroni, and, as you arrange it, dust it with black pepper. Over the crab dredge a nice dressing of the grated cheese, about one-eighth of an inch deep, and pour a little melted butter over the surface. Bake till the top takes colour, and serve. No sauce is necessary with this, but if you like, you can send round a sauce piquante, or any plain sharp relish of that class. 460 MENU FOR A LITTLE HOME DINNER. 3. — Vegetables are sometimes scarce at Madras, when our variety for this dish may be some- Beefsteak stewed ^yhat meac:re ; but we can always s^et with vegetables. ^ , • r • r^ i delicious Bombay onions, tair French beans, and carrots. Turnips taste too strong late in the season, so I would not advise yoiu* using them then. Choose a nice steak, fry it, to begin with in butter till it turns a nice brown colour on both sides, then put it into youi* stew-pan, with half a pint of water, (or broth) one Bombay onion cut into quarters, a good handful of French beans, a plant of celery and two carrots sliced, a table- spoonful of walnut ketchup, a salt-spoonful of sugar, a glass of Marsala, pepper, and salt. Cover the pan, and stew the steak ever so gently till the meat parts easily when tested by the fork. Then lift it out, strain the gravy, place the steak on a hot silver dish, arrange the vegetables cut up into very small dice tastefully over it, thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour, add a dessert-spoon- ful of Marsala, and pour it boiling hot over the steak. 4. — With the above, try your potatoes in this way : — mash them up with a little good milk, Potato duchesses. i , , j j.-i n r j. butter, and the yolks of two eggs ; add pepper, salt, some grated nutmeg, and some parsley, or celery leaves chopped fine (a few marjoram leaves are an improvement). Roll the mixture into balls the size of a pippin, bmsh them over with a beaten egg, set them on a buttered tin, and bake for a few minutes till they turn a o-olden yellow colour. They look pretty, and taste nice. They may also be formed somewhat smaller, the size of racquet balls, and fried a golden brown in melted butter. 5. — This is the American method of serving egg-plant, and is a very good dish for a change. Brinjal fritters. -ox,-, -u • • i • .oU Parboil some young brinjals in salt and water, let them get cold, and slice them in longitudinal MENU FOR A LITTLE HOME DINNER. 461 pieces of a convenient size and thickness for fritters — two inches long, and a quarter of an inch thick. Pick out the seeds. Prepare the batter I have previously described, dipping the pieces of brinjal in it, and frying them a crisp golden yellow in abundance of fat. Drain them quite dry, dust a little salt over them, and serve them with " Dutch sauce" (q. v. page 89). 6, — Mix together in a bowl two ounces of chopped candied peel, four ounces of suet Sir Watkin's pud- finely minced, four ounces fine white crumbs, one table-spoonful of flour

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