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Veal Kidneys Sautes

A sauté of veal kidneys with onion, mushroom ketchup, stock, and optional Madeira or Sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Veal Kidneys Sautes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the kidney

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the minced onion and heat until very hot.

  3. Add the sliced veal kidney and cook for about 5 minutes, turning often.

  4. Once nicely browned, stir in the mushroom ketchup and stock or fluid beef mixture.

Season and serve

  1. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. If desired, add the Madeira or Sherry just before serving.

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. Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

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

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  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

Veal kidney
Is the main protein, which browns in the hot butter and becomes tender when cooked briefly.
Butter
Carries the heat and adds richness, helping the kidney brown in the pan.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the pan juices.
Madeira or sherry
Adds aromatic sweetness and acidity when added just before serving.

The step that matters

Cooking the kidney until nicely browned. Kidney cooks quickly and turns firm and rubbery if overcooked. Hot fat and a short cook time brown the surface while keeping the inside tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, veal, mushroom, ketchup, beef, pepper, sherry):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal, mushroom, ketchup, beef, pepper, sherry. 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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