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French Kidney Stew

A stew of veal kidneys cooked in butter, mushrooms, stock, sherry, and lemon, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

French Kidney Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Soak the veal kidneys.

  2. Parboil the veal kidneys.

  3. Slice the kidneys into dice.

  4. Season the kidneys with parsley, pepper, and salt.

  5. Fry the kidneys in butter until browned, being careful not to overcook them.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix sliced mushrooms with stock or consommé.

  2. Thicken the mixture with flour and butter, lemon juice, and sherry.

  3. Boil the mixture.

Serve

  1. Place the kidneys on slices of toast.

  2. Pour the mixture over the kidneys.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal kidneys
Provide the main meat, whose texture turns firm and tough if overcooked.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and richness to the sauce, and helps browning the kidneys.
Flour
Thickens the stock and sherry mixture into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, balancing its richness.
Mushrooms
Contribute savoury, earthy flavour and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the kidneys in butter until browned, being careful not to overcook them.. Kidneys become tough and rubbery when overcooked, because high heat tightens the muscle proteins. Brief, hot frying browns the surface while keeping the interior tender.

“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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