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Beef Kidneys

A stew of beef kidneys with potato, parsley, and a brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beef Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidney

  1. Soak the kidney in cold water overnight.

  2. Boil the kidney for 3 hours.

Finish the stew

  1. Add the chopped potato, shredded parsley, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper 1 hour before finishing.

  2. Thicken with corn-starch steeped in cold milk, then bring to a boil.

Make the brown gravy

  1. For brown gravy, brown flour in butter, add kidney juice, and stir in vinegar for each pint of liquid.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef kidney
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow boiling.
Potato
Adds starch and body, helping the stew feel thicker and more substantial.
Corn-starch
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the sauce a smooth, glossy body.
Flour
Browned in butter to form a roux that colours and thickens the brown gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the kidney for 3 hours. Kidney is tough, and long gentle simmering breaks down its connective tissue. Too short a boil leaves it chewy, so the full time matters.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, pepper, corn, milk, butter, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, pepper, corn, milk, butter, flour. 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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