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Kidneys in Champagne

Kidneys cooked in butter, then simmered in Champagne and Italienne sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and champagne work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Kidneys in Champagne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the kidneys and mince them.

Cook the kidneys

  1. In a stew-pan, melt the butter over a brisk fire.

  2. Add the minced kidneys and cook until hardened.

Finish in the sauce

  1. Drain the kidneys and add them to an Italienne sauce.

  2. Pour in the Champagne and reduce it nearly to a glaze.

  3. Shake the kidneys in the sauce without boiling.

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 + champagnetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Champagne + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Egg + champagnetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep kidneys
Form the main meat, giving the dish its firm, tender texture once cooked.
Butter
Provides fat for cooking the kidneys and carries a rich, savoury flavour.
Champagne
Adds acidity and aroma, and its reduction concentrates flavour into the sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the sauce from boiling. Once the kidneys are in the sauce, boiling would toughen the proteins and make them rubbery. Keeping the sauce just below a simmer lets the kidneys warm through while staying tender.

“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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