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Omelette Aux Bognons

A French omelette served with a ragout of parboiled sheep's kidneys, butter, herbs, wine, stock, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Omelette Aux Bognons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Parboil the sheep's kidneys, then cut them into moderate-sized pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, toss the kidneys with butter, salt, pepper, parsley, truffles, and mushrooms.

Make the ragout

  1. In another saucepan, mix flour with butter, then add white wine and stock in equal parts.

  2. Transfer the kidney mixture to the second saucepan and cook until done.

  3. Add a squeeze of lemon before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve the kidney ragout around or inside a plain omelet.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's kidneys
Provide the main meaty body of the ragout, becoming tender when parboiled and then cooked through.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel, and helps cook the kidneys gently in the pan.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquids into a sauce that clings to the kidney pieces.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, lifting the flavour of the sauce.
Stock
Supplies liquid and savoury depth to the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy, savoury flavour and a tender texture to the ragout.

The step that matters

Cooking the kidneys until done. Kidneys turn rubbery and bitter when overcooked, so they should be cooked just until set in the sauce. Parboiling first mellows their strong flavour and firms them for cutting.

“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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