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Stewed Kidneys

A stew of sheep's kidneys cooked in browned butter, flour, water, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Divide the sheep's kidneys in half.

  2. Dust the kidneys with flour.

Brown and stew

  1. Heat the browned butter in a pan.

  2. Place the kidneys cut side down in the pan.

  3. Brown the kidneys on both sides.

  4. Pour off most of the butter.

  5. Add warm water.

  6. Thicken the sauce with flour.

  7. Let it stew until the kidneys are tender.

  8. Add ketchup for flavor.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Sheep's kidneys
Form the main body of the stew and become tender during the slow cooking.
Flour
Coats the kidneys for browning and later thickens the sauce.
Browned butter
Adds fat and a nutty flavor for browning the kidneys.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to season the sauce.

The step that matters

Let it stew until the kidneys are tender. Kidney is tough if cooked too briefly and too hard. A gentle, covered simmer lets the connective tissue break down slowly, giving a tender result. Rushing this stage leaves the meat chewy.

“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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