Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Kidneys

A stew of fresh kidneys simmered with onion, water, sherry or Worcestershire sauce, served with a milk and tripe sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Use fresh beef, calf, or lamb kidneys.

  2. Remove fat and white center from kidneys.

  3. Soak kidneys for one hour in salted water.

  4. Slice kidneys into one half‑inch thick pieces.

  5. Cover slices with flour.

Stew the kidneys

  1. Saute slices in one tablespoonful of butter for five minutes.

  2. Add a thin slice of onion and one half cupful of water to the frying pan.

  3. Simmer for ten minutes, not longer.

  4. Just before serving, add one quarter cupful of sherry; season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. If using Worcestershire sauce instead of sherry, add one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

Prepare the tripe

  1. Soak tripe for several hours.

  2. Scrape tripe thoroughly clean.

  3. Put tripe in salted water and simmer for three or four hours until it is like jelly.

  4. Drain water and set tripe aside until ready to use.

Make the tripe sauce and serve

  1. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan and heat until hot.

  2. Add a tablespoonful of flour to the hot butter and cook for a few minutes, but do not brown.

  3. Slowly add one cupful of milk, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and a half teaspoonful of onion juice.

  5. Add one cupful of the boiled tripe to the sauce.

  6. Stir until the tripe is heated, then serve immediately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

790Calories
23 gProtein
21 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys (in the method)
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered gently.
Butter
Fat that sears the floured kidney slices and enriches the sauce.
Flour
Coats the kidney slices and thickens the milk sauce for the tripe.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the simmered kidneys just before serving.
Milk
Forms the base of the white sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Tripe
Provides a tender, jelly-like texture in the creamy sauce after long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer the kidneys for ten minutes, not longer. Kidneys become tough and rubbery when overcooked, so a short, gentle simmer keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sherry, sauce, milk, 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 kidneys recipes

with Wine 3 See all 43 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes