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Kidney Pie

A baked dish of stewed kidneys, macaroni, tomatoes, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Kidney Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Cut the kidneys into neat squares and stew gently in weak stock for 30 minutes.

  2. Cook the macaroni until tender, then cut it into 1-inch lengths.

Layer and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and layer in the macaroni.

  2. Spread a layer of sliced kidneys over the macaroni, seasoned with pepper, salt, and made mustard.

  3. Sprinkle a little flour over the kidneys and add a layer of sliced tomatoes.

  4. Repeat the layers and cover with fine bread crumbs.

  5. Pour in the rich gravy made from the stock used for stewing the kidneys.

  6. Dot the top with small bits of butter and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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

Kidneys
Form the meaty main body of the pie, becoming tender when gently stewed.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy layer that holds the pie together.
Tomatoes
Contribute moisture and a slight acidity that brightens the rich kidney layers.
Rich gravy from stock
Supplies moisture and savoury flavour that keeps the layers from drying out while baking.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping as the pie bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavour and encourages browning on the top.

The step that matters

Stewing the kidneys gently. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if boiled or cooked too hard. A gentle simmer for the stated time keeps the meat tender before it is baked a second time.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, tomato, bread, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, tomato, bread, butter. 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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