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Kidney Stew

A stew of diced beef kidneys simmered with tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Kidney Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Remove fat from the kidneys and cut them into dice.

  2. Let the diced kidneys stand in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain and dredge with flour.

  3. In a frying pan, melt the butter and fry the kidneys until browned.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, combine the tomatoes, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and the browned kidneys, then boil for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the stew on squares of toast.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Beef kidneys
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and firm-textured when simmered in the sauce.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the kidney pieces and adds richness.
Flour (in the method)
Dredging coating that helps the kidney pieces brown and lightly thickens the stew.
Tomatoes
Form the liquid base of the stew and add acidity and body.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory depth and tang to the stew.

The step that matters

Browning the kidneys after the boiling water soak. Kidneys must be patted or drained well before frying so the surface can brown rather than steam. Browning builds flavour through the Maillard reaction, which the simmering sauce alone cannot provide.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, sauce. 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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