Comments on: When Life Gives You Veal Kidneys…

By: admin

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:35:04 +0000

What a wonderful comment, Pru. We’re so glad someone else can appreciate the often misunderstood (in this country, at least) kidney. Key Foods is also our grocery store – but the park slope location. Kidneys and liver are still about 99 cents per pound (or less). We have lots of liver recipes on our site too if you are into that as a quick, easy and delicious meal. Just go to the “search” box on the right and type in liver. Thanks for the comment and hope you come back – maybe after you’ve reintroduced yourself to the lovely kidney!

amy and jonny

By: Pru

Pru — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:02:26 +0000

Now that everyone’s talking about the new movie, Julia and Julia (or is it the other way around?) I was thinking about the dishes I cooked on a regular basis from Mastering the Art.. in 1964 and beyond when I was a bride in Brooklyn Heights. Julia’s “Rognons de Veau en Casserole” (kidneys cooked in butter with mustard and parsley sauce) was a quick week night meal for us. The kidneys were cheap and easy to find at Key Foods on Montague Street. Once I left Brooklyn for the midwest it became impossible to find them and over the years I forgot about them. I think I’ll try to track some down for old times’ sake!

By: Colin Willett

Colin Willett — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:26:32 +0000

Come on Folk, including Lee d. Wieland, rather than veal kidneys, which are not for true blue-blooded Englishmen/women(?), for real flavor, use beef kidneys instead of veal kidneys. They are much more flavorful than veal kidneys, and smell a lot worse!. Not overcooked, they are delicious. Here in the States they can often be found in Safeway and Shoppers’ stores. Select ones that are red and have a wonderful, healthy-looking, globular appearance

By: claudia (cook eat FRET)

claudia (cook eat FRET) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:25:14 +0000

if you made this for me i would totally eat it
am i running out to find veal kidneys?
no…

cool post
a year late but here i am

By: Meat & Greet #1: And the Winner is…

Meat & Greet #1: And the Winner is… — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:30:24 +0000

[...] and Jonny from We Are Never Full in Brooklyn delved into the wonderful world of kidneys, with a veal kidneys with cognac and mushrooms. Their dish and Pixie’s share many of the same [...]

By: Hank

Hank — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:54:36 +0000

Hey there — thanks for entering Meat & Greet! The milk soak for kidneys is a must for all but rabbits and squirrels, which are so small they need not be bathed in moo juice. I am not 100 percent certain, but my hunch is that it is an osmotic thing: There are more minerally, urea-laden icky things in the kidney (HATE beef kidneys, BTW – I stick to venison, antelope, lamb and veal) than in the milk, and since salts of various forms are a key component of urine, they leach out of the organ in precisely the opposite way salt leaches into meat when you brine it. Does that make sense?

By: billy

billy — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:36:18 +0000

it looks bad but the recipy sounds good! oh well woobooo

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:57:46 +0000

Hi Lee,

interesting English connection with the kidneys and thanks for your comment and for finding our blog. I only ever ate kidneys in a steak and kidney pie in England, and it took a trip to France before I ever, knowingly ate them in any other form.

My research suggests that using milk to neutralize the pissy smell is, and has been for years in poorer parts where they eat kidneys, a tried and tested technique. I can find no reference for actually why it happens but investigation of http://www.vidagest.com – a kidney cleansing pill – suggests that since kidneys normally absorb many of the mineral nutrients your body needs – potassium, calcium, sodium,magnesium, phosphorus – at least some of which occur in sizable quantity in milk, kidneys might absorb milk because its constituent parts are absorbed naturally. And, since the kidney removes excess salt from the bloodstream and replaces it with nutrients, is it not possible that replacing uric salt with good stuff neutralizes the stink?

Of course, this is all my idea. I’m no scientist, but it makes sense to me. Your thoughts are welcome, since I could be making all this up!

By: Lee D. Wieland

Lee D. Wieland — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:27:45 +0000

Dear Kidney Converts,
Kidneys aren’t the thing I eat at all, but as I am writing this to you, my buddy, who also is English (Essex) and must have his weekly ration, is preparing his skilletful of beef kidneys.
After making sure all exhaust fans were set on HIGH, I commented to him that in childhood I was taught to soak the likes of shark and swordfish in milk to take care of tasty/smelly urinary matters– so why not kidney? A little research and voilà, that’s what’s recommended!
The question is: “what exactly,” in chemical terms, does the soaking-in-milk-before-cooking have on the flesh of these “delicacies”?
Curious-on-the-Severn, Leedee