Skip to main content
Main

Rognons a LA Terrapin

Kidneys cooked with butter, flour, milk, egg yolk, sherry, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rognons a LA Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the kidney for stewing by scalding it three times.

  2. Cut the kidney into small slices or pieces.

  3. Season the kidney with salt and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, stir together the flour and butter over medium heat without browning.

  2. Blend the mixture with the boiling milk and stir for 3 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the kidney thoroughly.

  2. Remove the kidney from heat.

  3. Add the yolk of the egg, sherry, and parsley.

  4. Serve immediately.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the sauce without browning.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it body.
Egg
Yolk enriches and thickens the sauce for a smooth, rich texture.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a touch of acidity to balance the richness.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk proteins set when overheated and can curdle or scramble. Removing the kidney from the heat before adding the yolk keeps the sauce smooth and thick rather than grainy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, milk, pepper, 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.

You might also like

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