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Kidneys with Tomatoes

Kidneys cooked with tomatoes, served on toast with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Kidneys with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and skin the kidneys, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Mix flour, salt, and cayenne pepper, then roll the kidneys in this mixture.

Cook

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the floured kidneys when it begins to bubble.

  2. Stir until browned, about five minutes, then add hot water and vinegar.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add the lump of sugar.

  4. Peel the tomatoes in hot water without breaking them, then place them whole on top of the kidneys.

  5. Cover and steam for ten minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast with gravy and tomatoes as garnish.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and butter 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

Mutton kidneys
Provide the main meat, which browns and becomes tender in the sauce.
Flour
Coats the kidneys so they brown and thicken the sauce around them.
Butter
Fat for browning the floured kidneys and adding rich flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness.
Tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity and body to the sauce as they cook down.

The step that matters

Stir until browned, about five minutes. Browning the floured kidneys develops flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale or steamed kidneys taste flat, and the flour can stay raw if the surface is not lightly coloured before liquid is added.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, pepper, butter, vinegar, sugar. 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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