Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Kidney

A stew of beef kidney simmered with onion, herbs, and a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Kidney

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the kidney

  1. Soak the beef kidney in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Cut the kidney into small pieces, discarding all fat and gristle, and place each piece in cold water.

  3. Wash the kidney pieces well and put them in a saucepan with 1 pint of cold water.

Stew

  1. Add the sliced onion, bay leaf, parsley, celery seed (or piece of celery), and clove.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, then cover and simmer slowly for 3 hours.

  3. Transfer the kidney to a dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. The next morning, make a sauce by melting 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of flour and heating thoroughly.

  2. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice, then serve very hot.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef kidney
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during long, slow simmering.
Butter
Melts with the flour to form a roux that gives the sauce body and richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux, giving the sauce its body.

The step that matters

Simmering slowly for 3 hours. A rolling boil toughens meat proteins, while a gentle simmer lets connective tissue break down slowly, so the kidney stays tender. Skimming foam first keeps the broth clear.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, celery, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, celery, butter, flour, pepper. 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.

More stewed kidney recipes

on Toast 3 See all 13 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes