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To Dress Beef-kidneys

A stew of sliced beef kidneys fried and simmered with pepper, salt, lemon juice, and saccharin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 ↓

To Dress Beef-kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef kidneys into neat slices.

  2. Soak them in warm water for 2 hours, changing the water 2-3 times.

  3. Dry the kidneys on a clean cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat clarified butter in a frying pan and fry the kidneys until nicely browned.

  2. Season each side with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Transfer the kidneys to a stewpan and gently stew for 1 hour.

  4. Before serving, add lemon juice and saccharin to the gravy and pour it in the middle of the dish.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Beef + lemontop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,278 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef kidneys
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when gently stewed.
Clarified butter
Fat for frying that browns the kidney surfaces and adds richness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and balances the rich meat.

The step that matters

Soaking the kidneys. Soaking in several changes of warm water draws out the strong, urinary flavour and blood from the kidneys. Skipping or shortening this step leaves the stew tasting harsh and metallic.

“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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