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Ox Kidney

A stew of sliced ox kidneys simmered in broth with shallots, parsley, and vinegar or ketchup, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ox Kidney

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ox kidneys into thin slices and wash them well.

  2. Dry the slices and sprinkle with pepper, coarse sea salt, and flour.

Cook

  1. Fry the slices in butter for a few minutes until browned.

  2. Gradually add 4 cups of boiling broth or water.

  3. Add the chopped shallots, parsley, and shallot vinegar, ketchup, or walnut pickle.

  4. Let it simmer gently for about an hour.

Serve

  1. Serve with toasted bread slices.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ox kidneys
Provide the meat that becomes tender during the long simmer.
Flour
Lightly coats the slices so they brown and help thicken the liquid.
Butter
Fat for frying the slices, promoting browning and rich flavour.
Broth or water
Forms the liquid in which the kidney simmers into a sauce.
Shallots
Add sweet, mild onion flavour that mellows as they cook.
Shallot vinegar, ketchup, or walnut pickle
Adds acidity and tang that balances the rich, savoury meat.

The step that matters

Frying the slices until browned. Browning through the butter and flour creates deep, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Slices that are crowded or wet will steam instead and stay pale and bland.

“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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Stewed 6Stew 3

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