Skip to content

Veal Kidney with Anchovy

A historical recipe from The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well, by Maria Gentile (1919).

No ratings yet

A historical recipe

The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well; Practical Recipes of the Italian Cuisine, Pastries, Sweets, Frozen Delicacies, and Syrups, by Maria Gentile (1919). Project Gutenberg eBook #24407.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Italy

Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Grill and open flame. Keep sleeves, hair and tea towels away from the flame, and stay with the grill while it's lit. Barbecue outdoors only, never in a closed space.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Take a veal kidney, remove the fat, cut it open and cover with boiling water.
  2. When the water has cooled, remove the kidney, wipe with a cloth, and pass through it clean sticks to make it stay open.
  3. Season with melted butter, salt and pepper and leave it so prepared for an hour or two.
  4. Then take another piece of butter and two or three anchovies.
  5. Clean the latter, chop and mix with the butter with the blade of a knife, making a ball.
  6. Cook the kidney on the grill, but not too much, in order to keep it tender, put it on a plate and grease when hot with the ball of butter and anchovies.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Grill or grill pan
  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well, by Maria Gentile (1919). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #24407 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24407). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.