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Kidney Stew a LA Salazar

A stew of veal kidneys simmered with lemon, peppers, onions, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Kidney Stew a LA Salazar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Skin, clean, and cut the kidneys into 1‑inch pieces.

  2. Soak the kidneys in coarse sea salt and water for 3 hours.

  3. Wipe the kidneys dry and place them in a bowl.

  4. Squeeze the juice of 3 lemons over the kidneys and let stand for 2 hours.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Seed the green peppers and finely chop them with the onions.

Cook the stew

  1. Heat the olive oil in a kettle.

  2. Add the kidneys, cover, and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Add the chopped peppers, onions, and pepper to the kettle.

  4. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal kidneys
Form the main body of the stew, becoming tender with slow, covered cooking.
Lemon juice
Acidity that softens and mildly reduces the strong flavor of the kidneys.
Green peppers
Add fresh, slightly bitter flavor and aroma as they cook into the stew.
Spanish onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the olive oil.
Olive oil
Carries heat and flavor, helping the vegetables and kidneys cook evenly.

The step that matters

Cook the kidneys slowly, covered. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if cooked hard or too long. Gentle, covered heat over 30 minutes keeps them tender and moist while they release their juices into the kettle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, lemon, pepper, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, lemon, pepper, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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