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Stewed Kidneys, with Wine

A dish of kidneys simmered in wine and gravy, seasoned with onion, ketchup, paprika, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys, with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Soak the kidneys in cold water, then slice and wipe dry.

  2. Roll the kidneys in flour.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, heat the butter and fry the onion slice.

  2. Add the kidneys and coat them in the butter for 2 minutes.

  3. Pour in the boiling water or heated stock and simmer for 10-12 minutes.

  4. Remove the kidneys and place them on a hot dish.

  5. To the gravy, add ketchup, paprika or cayenne, salt, and the browned flour butter.

  6. Bring to a boil, then stir in the sherry or claret.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the kidneys and serve.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle simmering in the sauce.
Flour
Coats the kidneys and, browned in butter, thickens the gravy.
Butter
Fat that fries the onion and coats the kidneys, adding richness and flavour.
Sherry or claret
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the kidneys. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if overcooked, so a short, gentle simmer of 10-12 minutes keeps them tender. Once removed, they stay tender while the sauce reduces.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, ketchup, sherry. 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.

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