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Liver and Kidney Stew

A stew of calf liver and beef kidney simmered in water, thickened with butter and flour, served with lemon slices and hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Liver and Kidney Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Fry the liver until browned.

  2. Simmer the kidney in 2 quarts of water until done.

  3. Set the kidney aside.

Make the stew

  1. The next day, slice the kidney and liver.

  2. Put the sliced liver and kidney back into the water they were boiled in. Add a few spices.

  3. Thicken with flour rubbed in 2 tablespoons of butter.

Serve

  1. Serve with lemon slices and hard boiled eggs on top. Drizzle with wine.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Calves' liver
Browns in the pan and adds a rich, meaty flavor to the stew.
Beef kidney
Becomes tender through simmering and adds a firm, meaty texture to the stew.
Butter
Enriches the thickened stew with fat and a rounded flavor.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the stew becomes smooth and body-rich.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour rubbed in butter. Flour must be worked into the butter before stirring into the liquid so it dissolves smoothly instead of forming lumps. Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, so the stew should be kept at a simmer while it sets.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, beef, butter, flour, egg, wine):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Raisinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, beef, butter, flour, egg, wine. 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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