Name: Kidney Stew
Ingredients: kidneys; flour; coarse sea salt; black pepper; grated nutmeg; dry mustard; 1 tablespoon minced onion; ½ tablespoon minced parsley; 1 cup stock

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 ↓

Kidney Stew

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Skin and trim the kidneys, remove the core, and cut into quarters.
Roll each piece in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and dry mustard.

Cook

Place in a greased bag with minced onion, parsley, and stock.
Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,588 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys: Form the main body of the stew and provide its meaty texture.
Flour: Coats the kidney pieces and helps thicken the cooking liquid into a sauce.
Stock: Provides the cooking liquid that gives moisture and savoury flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper, nutmeg, mustard, parsley):

Shallotfits better
Horseradishfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, nutmeg, mustard, parsley. 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.