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Macaroni with Tomatoes and Kidneys

A macaroni dish with mutton kidneys simmered in a gravy of butter, flour, rich gravy, shallots, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Macaroni with Tomatoes and Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in veal broth until tender.

Make the kidney gravy

  1. Skin the mutton kidneys and fry them lightly in butter.

  2. Remove the kidneys from the pan and mince them finely.

  3. In the same pan, make a gravy by adding brown flour, rich gravy, minced shallots, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Stew the minced kidneys in the gravy for 10 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix part of the warm macaroni into the gravy and toss for a few minutes.

  2. Serve the mixture on a hot dish, arranging the remaining macaroni on top.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton kidneys
Provide the main meat, giving the dish its characteristic rich, savoury flavour and firm texture.
Macaroni
Forms the starchy base, absorbing the gravy and adding bulk to the dish.
Butter
Fat for frying the kidneys, adding richness and light browning.
Brown flour
Thickens the gravy and adds colour and a toasted flavour.
Rich gravy
Supplies the liquid that moistens the kidneys and macaroni and carries the seasoning.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the kidneys lightly. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be only lightly fried before mincing and finishing in the gravy, which keeps them tender.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, pepper. 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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