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Beef-kidney Stewed

A stew of sliced beef kidney and onion in butter, flour, water, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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-kidney Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion and beef kidney; brown them.

  3. Dust the kidney with flour and stir until the flour is brown.

  4. Pour in the boiling water and season with salt and pepper.

  5. Stew gently for 10 minutes.

  6. Add the chopped parsley and Madeira wine, then 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef kidney
Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender with gentle simmering.
Flour
Browns with the butter and thickens the liquid into a savoury sauce.
Butter
Carries the browning of the onion and kidney and adds richness.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as it browns in the butter.
Madeira wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Dust the kidney with flour and stir until the flour is brown. Browning the flour in the fat develops nutty, toasted flavour and gives the sauce colour. Stopping too early leaves a raw floury taste, while burning makes it bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, madeira wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, madeira 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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