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Kidneys and Mushrooms

A stew of sheep's kidneys and mushrooms simmered in a butter and flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Kidneys and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split open the kidneys and remove the fat.

  2. In a skillet, fry the kidneys quickly in the butter.

  3. Transfer the kidneys to a stew pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Sprinkle the flour into the remaining butter.

  2. Add the stock and stir until boiling.

  3. Pour the sauce over the kidneys.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the sliced onions and peeled mushrooms.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the sauce over them and serve the kidneys and mushrooms.

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

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

  2. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Sheep's kidneys
Provide the main meat, which turns tender with quick frying and gentle simmering.
Butter
Carries the frying heat and enriches the sauce with fat and flavour.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour that blends into the sauce as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury depth.

The step that matters

Fry the kidneys quickly in the butter. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if overcooked. A quick, hot sear browns the outside while leaving the inside tender, and the simmer later must not be overdone.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, flour. 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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