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Stewed Kidneys

Sliced kidneys browned in butter, then stewed with herbs, mushrooms, stock and lemon, and served with fried bread sippets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Skin the kidneys and remove all the fat.

  2. Cut them into slices no thicker than ½ inch.

  3. Finely mince the eschalot, mushrooms, and thyme; use double the amount of minced parsley.

  4. Sprinkle the kidney slices with the herb mixture, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a clean stewpan and fry the kidneys until browned on both sides.

  2. Thicken with flour and add ½ cup of hot stock or gravy and a squeeze of lemon.

  3. Bring to a boil, then skim off any foam.

  4. Serve with fried bread sippets.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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, becoming tender when simmered in the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, helping the kidney slices brown and carrying flavour.
Mushrooms
Contribute moisture and savoury depth to the herb mixture under the sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, thinned with flour to thicken it.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury sauce.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam after boiling. Boiling releases foam and impurities from the kidneys and stock; skimming keeps the sauce clear and clean-tasting.

“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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