Skip to main content
Main

Kidney Saute

Sautéed lamb kidneys with butter, flour, lemon juice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Kidney Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the kidneys and cut them into thin round slices.

  2. Use a knife to cut out the fat and sinews.

  3. Soak the kidneys in 1 quart of cold water with 1 tablespoon of salt for 2 hours.

  4. Drain and wipe the kidneys dry with a cloth.

  5. Season with salt and roll in flour.

Cook

  1. Heat butter in a frying pan until hot, then add the kidneys and any flour that has not clung to them.

  2. Stir for 2 minutes, then add water, beef extract, salt, cayenne pepper, parsley, and lemon juice.

  3. Heat to boiling point, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.

  4. Add ½ pound of minced mushrooms that have been cooked for 5 minutes in another pan.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together896 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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 dish, with a tender, meaty texture when cooked briefly.
Flour
Coats the kidney slices and thickens the pan liquid into a light sauce.
Butter
Fries the kidneys and adds richness and a browned flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich kidney and sauce flavor.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Heat to boiling, then simmer for 3 minutes. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if overcooked, so keep the simmer brief and gentle once the liquid is added. Brief cooking keeps the slices tender while the flour-thickened sauce forms.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes