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Ox Kidneys

A sautéed ox kidney dish with butter, flour, onions, parsley, salt, pepper, broth, and optional sherry and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ox Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fleshy part of the kidney into thin slices and reserve the white part for pot-au-feu.

Cook

  1. Heat the butter, dripping, or lard in a frying pan until very hot.

  2. Add the kidney slices and fry quickly, stirring almost continually until firm.

  3. Add the flour, chopped onions, parsley, salt, and pepper, and stir well.

  4. Mix in the broth or water and let simmer for five minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, optionally adding sherry and mushrooms for extra flavor.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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

Kidney (in the method)
Provides the meat that is sliced and quickly fried until firm.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce as it simmers with the broth.
Butter, dripping, or lard
Fat for frying the kidney slices quickly at high heat, adding richness and browning.
Broth or water
Liquid that, with the flour, forms the sauce during the short simmer.

The step that matters

Frying the kidney slices quickly. Kidney is tender and turns tough and rubbery if overcooked. Frying quickly in very hot fat sears the outside and sets the slices while keeping the inside tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, pepper, sherry, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, pepper, sherry, mushroom. 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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