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Stewed Kidneys

Stewed kidneys seasoned with parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, cayenne, browned in butter, coated with flour, and simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Skin the kidneys and remove the fat without cutting them.

  2. Slice the kidneys into pieces about ¼ inch thick.

  3. Mix parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, and cayenne in a plate.

  4. Sprinkle the mixture over the sliced kidneys.

Cook the stew

  1. Melt butter in a pan and add the kidneys, browning them quickly on both sides.

  2. Dredge flour over the kidneys and shake to prevent burning.

  3. Pour in stock and simmer for a few 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.

  1. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Kidneys
Form the main body of the stew and provide its meaty texture.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the kidneys and carries flavour through the dish.
Flour
Coats the kidneys and thickens the stock into a light sauce.
Stock
Provides the liquid that becomes the stew and softens the kidneys as it simmers.

The step that matters

Browning the kidneys quickly. Searing the kidneys quickly over high heat builds colour and flavour on the surface. Overcooking them makes the meat tough and rubbery, so they should be seared briefly and not left in the pan.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Thymethe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

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