h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or rather, prepare them for cooking?

I'm planning to make kidneys in sherry sauce and my recipe book says that very fresh lamb or veal kidneys should not need soaking or blancing. But it says that pork or beef kidneys (I've got pork ones) need to be blanched for 15 minutes in simmering water with a bit of lemon juice or vinegar added, and afterwards peel off the thin membrane and cut out the core of fat.

Thing is, later on it says to sauté the kidneys very gently in olive oil as high heat and overcooking will cause them to harden. But wouldn't the blanching also harden them?

I've never cooked kidneys before - this is all a part of my trying to prepare more iron-rich foods for Noggin (and besides, he loves kidneys). So any advice would be much appreciated.




azahar

I would agree with the later advice about gentle cooking to avoid making them tough, but on the other hand I may not have used pork kidneys.
Surely the trimming of membranes and fat can be done without blanching first?

I guess they intend it to be a very short blanching to be very short? a minute perhaps only in a pan of already boiling water, then once removed I guess* the membranes and internal fat would be somewhat detached from the rest of the meat and hence easier to remove? maybe less than a minute even, like when blanching tomatos to just loosen the skin off it

That's what I thought too, 2legs, but unless it's a typo the book says to blanch the kidneys for 15 minutes. I always thought blanching was a very short process.


az

Are you sure it doesn't say 1.5 minutes?

B

The Cook Thesaurus recommends saoking them for an hour in acidulated water or buttermilk. Maybe that would be better than blanching?

yeh, blanching is a short* thing fifteen minutes is cooking* not blanching

Take from a 77 year old who cooks, modern pork kidneys are not the strong flavour we had years back so they need no special treatment. They can be used in any recipe that says Lambs kidney so get stuck in, do not be afraid and cook up a storm.