Thin slices of beef kidney in a glossy brown sherry sauce with flecks of shallot and chopped parsley, in an oval brown earthenware dish. — Sliced kidneys in a brown sherry sauce with shallot and parsley.

Stewed Kidneys with Sherry (1846)

Name: Stewed Kidneys with Sherry
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 450 g beef kidney, trimmed weight; 30 g unsalted butter; 30 g shallot, finely chopped; 1 tbsp flour; 60 ml dry sherry; 60 ml water; ¼ tsp fine salt; ⅛ tsp ground black pepper; 1 tsp chopped parsley; 1 bay leaf

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Stewed kidneys in sherry sauce from Alexis Soyer’s 1846 cookbook: sliced beef kidneys browned with shallot, then simmered gently with sherry, parsley and bay.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Nov 1, 2026

Recipe makes: 4 small servings
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 35 min

Most of the preparation is trimming the kidney. The cooking is quick: a few minutes to brown, then a gentle simmer until the thickest slice reaches 160°F (71°C).

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Sliced kidneys in a brown sherry sauce with shallot and parsley.

The story behind the recipe

Alexis Soyer’s ox kidneys of 1846 come with a warning in the middle of the recipe, “not, however, to boil, or they would become hard and indigestible,” and it decides the whole dish. The slices are browned for five minutes, then simmered for five more in a little sherry and water and taken off the heat before they toughen. “Stewed Kidneys” is all Catherine Dickens’s winter bill of 1852 says, on the line after the roast mutton, and Soyer’s book is one London answer to what that could mean.

Which kidneys, and for which meal?

The bill names no animal. Soyer’s recipe is for ox kidneys, sliced thin and cut “avoiding the piece in the centre,” the hard pale core, and he thought them “very good for breakfast or luncheon.” Catherine’s bill puts kidneys on a dinner table for six or seven, so the same dish could cross from one meal to another. Calling this her kidneys would go further than the page does; this is the stewed kidney a reader of Soyer would have known.

The Gastronomic Regenerator has two kitchens, the Kitchen of the Wealthy and the Kitchen at Home, and Soyer promised that even the first one’s fancy pastry needed “no greater convenience to make than what my Kitchen at Home will afford.” The Kitchen at Home comes later in the book and numbers its recipes again from one, so this is its No. 159. He ends it with a suggestion: “A few raw mushrooms stewed with the kidneys is also a great improvement.”

Making it today

We use beef kidney, the modern name for ox, and set the amount at 450 grams after trimming. Soyer’s “two glasses” each of sherry and water become 60 ml each, our choice, since a Victorian glass held no fixed amount. The bigger change is the finish. Today’s food-safety guidance asks for 160°F (71°C) in the thickest slice, which can take a minute or two past Soyer’s five, so the heat stays low, as he wanted, and the thermometer decides. On the bill, the kidneys shared the table with mashed and brown potatoes, and Soyer’s own Mashed Potatoes (1854) can go beside them. The whole winter dinner is in What Did Catherine Dickens Plan for a Winter Dinner Party?

No. 159. Ox Kidneys are very good for breakfast or luncheon; cut the kidneys into thin slices, avoiding the piece in the centre, put two ounces of butter in a stewpan, with a little chopped eschalots, place over the fire, when becoming a little browned add the kidneys, which keep stirring for five minutes still over the fire, add half a tablespoonful of flour (mix well), two glasses of sherry, two of water, half a teaspoonful of salt, a quarter ditto of pepper, one of chopped parsley, and a bay-leaf, let simmer gently five minutes, not, however, to boil, or they would become hard and indigestible, should the sauce be too thin add a little butter and flour mixed together, it requires to be sufficiently thick to envelope the kidneys; when done pour out upon a dish and serve very hot. A few raw mushrooms stewed with the kidneys is also a great improvement.

Alexis SoyerThe Gastronomic Regenerator (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; sold by John Ollivier, 1846), Kitchen at Home No. 159, Ox Kidneys, pp. 679–680

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Ingredients

For 4 small servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 4 small servings.

Beef kidney, trimmed weight450 g
Unsalted butter30 g
Shallot, finely chopped30 g
Flour1 tbsp
Dry sherry60 ml
Water60 ml
Fine salt1/4 tsp
Ground black pepper1/8 tsp
Chopped parsley1 tsp
Bay leaf1

Ingredients as written here

450 g beef kidney, trimmed weight
30 g unsalted butter
30 g shallot, finely chopped
1 tbsp flour
60 ml dry sherry
60 ml water
¼ tsp fine salt
⅛ tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 bay leaf

Equipment

Cutting board and sharp knife
Wide skillet or sauté pan
Wooden spoon
Instant-read thermometer
Warm serving dish

Instructions

Cut away any membrane and fat from the beef kidney, then cut out the hard, pale core in the center of each lobe. Slice the meat about 5 mm (¼ inch) thick and pat it dry. Keep it in the refrigerator until the pan is ready.
Melt the unsalted butter in the skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, until soft and just beginning to color.
Add the kidney slices in a single layer, in two batches if the pan is crowded, and stir and turn them for 4 to 5 minutes, lowering the heat if the butter browns too fast.
Sprinkle the flour over the kidneys and stir for 1 minute. Pour in the dry sherry and the water, add the fine salt, ground black pepper, chopped parsley and bay leaf, and scrape up the browned bits from the pan.
Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, stirring, without letting it boil hard, until the sauce coats the slices and a thermometer pushed into the side of the thickest slice reads 160°F (71°C).
Take out the bay leaf. If the sauce is still thin, lift the kidneys into the warm serving dish, simmer the sauce alone until it coats a spoon, and return the kidneys for a moment to heat through. If it thickens too far, loosen it with a splash of water. Serve very hot, as Soyer says.

Nutrition

200calories per serving

Recipe makes: 4 small servings
Servings: 4

Estimated per serving (4) from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) values for raw beef kidney, butter, shallot, flour and dry wine, counting all of the sherry before cooking.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Soyer gives no weight of kidney. Brown no more slices at a time than fit in one layer, and work in batches for a larger amount.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Our changes from Soyer: beef kidney at a set trimmed weight; 30 g of butter in place of his two ounces (about 57 g), since he gives no weight of kidney; a measured shallot and 1 tbsp of flour for his “a little” and half tablespoonful; 60 ml each of sherry and water for his two glasses; less salt and pepper; no mushrooms; the thermometer endpoint; and reducing the sauce on its own in place of his extra butter and flour. For a version without wine, use 60 ml of beef broth and 1 tsp of lemon juice in place of the sherry. A short simmer does not drive off all the alcohol. Cook kidneys and other organ meats to 160°F (71°C), as the US Department of Agriculture advises, refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and eat them within a day or two. Contains milk (butter) and wheat (flour).

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.