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Rognons Sautes a LA Carvalho - Kidneys Sauted

Sautéed kidneys with shallots, tomatoes, wine, brown sauce, beef extract, butter, lemon, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Rognons Sautes a LA Carvalho - Kidneys Sauted

Ingredients

Directions

Sear the kidneys

  1. Slice the kidneys and cook them in hot butter until browned.

  2. Drain the kidneys and set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. Chop the shallots finely and fry them in butter without coloring.

  2. Moisten the shallots with white wine and allow to reduce.

  3. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a while.

  4. Stir in the brown sauce and beef extract.

  5. Finish with salt, red pepper, butter, and lemon juice.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Form the main protein that is browned and then gently finished in the sauce.
Butter
Carries heat for browning the kidneys and adds richness to the finished sauce.
Shallots
Provide a mild, sweet aromatic base for the sauce when fried gently.
White wine
Deglazes the pan and reduces to add acidity and depth to the sauce.
Tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity and body to the sauce as they cook down.
Brown sauce
Supplies the main savoury body and colour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the kidneys in hot butter. Kidneys cooked too long or too slowly turn tough and grey, while a hot pan browns the surface quickly and keeps the interior tender.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, white wine, tomato, sauce, beef, pepper. 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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