The organization, which began in 1938, enjoys brains, livers and kidneys at biannual luncheon at Clifton Club in Lakewood, Ohio.
Michael Heaton of The Plain Dealer shared the experience of an unusual luncheon attended by 60-plus devotees of the Kidney Stew Club, on the back terrace of the Clifton Club in Lakewood, Ohio. The sun was shining, drinks were flowing and the crowd sampled hors d’oeuvres of calf’s brain fritters, Rocky Mountain oysters (bull testicles), and sheep kidney beignets.
The calf’s brains and oysters have a taste not unlike chicken livers. The lemon and garlic dipping sauces with which they are served do them a great favor. The sheep kidney beignets are a different story—the taste of iron is powerful. Only a slurp of chilled vodka can clean that palate, the Plain Dealer reported.
This is an “organization” with no dues, no secret handshakes and rigid strictures against “members, meeting and minutes.” Nevertheless, meetings have been held twice a year since 1938.
The business of this lunch is, in fact, the lunch—a consumption of offal in all it’s forms, depending on your taste for the exotic. Offal is defined as “the internal organ meats of a butchered animal.” Kidneys grab the starring role in many but not all the dishes served here, hence the name of the club, the Plain Dealer reported.
The group contains long-time trenchermen, some going back 30 years or more as well as first-timers. There also are a handful of father/son lunchers.
“For me this is a great opportunity to spend an afternoon a couple times a year with my dad,” said Jim Busch, 50, the president of Busch Funeral Home. Jim and his 82-year-old father, John, are Kidney Stew Club veterans.
While the men, all in jackets, some with ties, drank Bloody Marys and other cocktails, Clifton Club chef Gary Bessette was preparing an amuse-bouche of pheasant rillette on a flatbread cracker, a soup of oxtail consomme, a bread course of duck fat toasted mini baguettes, a calves tongue salad, and a steak and kidney pie with elk flank and beef kidney covered with puff pastry, the Plain Dealer reported.
This was followed by a dish called “Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny,” which consists of pork kidneys, rabbit loin, pancetta, carrot puree with sage, and gruyere cheese in a phyllo beggars purse. The cassoulet lardon was a confit of duck hearts. Dessert was a mango crème brulee crusted with crispy beef testicle.
Every Kidney Stew Club lunch takes place in a different private club or restaurant. Younglas says it can be challenging to find a big room that’s open for this size crowd in the middle of a Saturday or a chef who’s up to the task of turning these animal organs into tasty delights, the Plain Dealer reported.
Chef Bessette and his crew took five hours to prepare and execute the feast.
“A big part of the challenge was finding the ingredients,” Bessette told The Plain Dealer, “This stuff came from all over the country. It’s not easy to find rabbit kidneys or duck hearts. And you have to be able to order enough for 60 people.”
Lunch was delayed a half hour as the club waited for stragglers. Organ meats must be served immediately out of the pan or oven. They don’t tarry well.
Younglas has some advice for a first-timer, the Plain Dealer reported.
“You don’t want to go to the doctor for blood work the Monday following one of these lunches,” he says. “Kidneys have a lot of iron, but your cholesterol will be through the roof.”
The first Kidney Stew Club lunch started as a lark on December 10, 1938, organized by an insurance executive named Henry E. Haiman. The group started meeting for a lunch of kidney stew and copious bottles of wine at a restaurant called Pierre’s, and the very first “meeting” was a success, the Plain Dealer reported.
Back at the Clifton Club, 77 years since the first Kidney Stew Club lunch, non-members of the non-organization talk about the non-meaning of the gathering.
Chad Pearce, a former butcher, points out some irony in the fancy meal.
“Organ meats were originally peasant food,” he says. “These were the cuts of the animal given to the help after the steaks and chops were sent to the kitchen for the owners of the house. The chitlins, the heart and the kidneys were for the poor people. It takes a real gourmet’s flare to make them so tasty.”
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