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Kidneys, Stewed

A stew of kidneys cooked slowly with butter, shallot, gravy, and pan liquor, served with toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Kidneys, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the kidneys

  1. Fry the kidneys slowly on both sides in a little butter with the minced shallot until half-cooked.

  2. Transfer the kidneys to a stewpan with the gravy and the liquor from the frying-pan.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew very slowly for fifteen minutes.

  2. Serve with sippets of toast.

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. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when cooked gently rather than fast.
Butter
Fat for frying that adds richness and helps the kidneys brown on the outside.
Shallot
Softens in the butter to give a mild, sweet aromatic base for the sauce.
Thickened gravy
Provides moisture, body and a rich savoury sauce that the kidneys finish cooking in.

The step that matters

Stew very slowly for fifteen minutes. Kidneys are lean muscle, and high heat or rapid boiling squeezes out moisture and toughens the meat. A gentle simmer keeps them tender and lets the gravy and pan juices blend without the sauce catching or breaking.

“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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