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Kidneys Sauté

Kidneys sautéed with mushrooms, sherry, broth, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Kidneys Sauté

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut each kidney into five pieces.

  2. In a hot sauté pan, melt the butter.

Sauté and sauce

  1. Add the kidneys and stir for a few minutes until set.

  2. Add flour, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Pour in the broth and sherry, then add mushrooms.

  4. Cook for a few minutes without boiling.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Kidneys
Form the main body of the dish, becoming firm and set when seared briefly in hot fat.
Butter
Provides fat for sautéing, carrying flavour and helping the kidneys brown.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a light sauce that clings to the kidneys.
Sherry, port, or champagne
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the pan sauce as it reduces.

The step that matters

Cook without boiling. Once the broth and wine are added, a gentle simmer keeps the sauce smooth. A hard boil can make the flour-thickened sauce break or turn grainy, and can toughen the kidneys.

“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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