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Rognons Sautes a LA Lucullus - Kidneys Sauted

Sautéed kidneys served with Madeira sauce, truffles, mushrooms, cocks' combs, and cocks' kidneys on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rognons Sautes a LA Lucullus - Kidneys Sauted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the kidneys in half lengthwise.

  2. Sauté the kidneys in butter until cooked.

  3. Fry the bread slices in butter until golden.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare Madeira sauce in a separate pan.

  2. Add sliced truffles, mushrooms, cocks' combs, and cocks' kidneys to the sauce.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the sautéed kidneys and serve on the fried bread.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Provide the main meaty texture and rich flavour that the dish is built around.
Butter
Carries the heat for sautéing and fries the bread, adding richness and golden browning.
Bread
Gives a crisp, golden base that soaks up the sauce.
Madeira sauce
Adds a sweet, fortified-wine depth and a glossy coating over the kidneys.
Truffles
Add a strong earthy aroma that defines the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury, umami depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Sauté the kidneys in butter until cooked. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be cooked just through over a hot pan and not left to keep cooking while the sauce is finished.

“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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