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Kidneys, Sauted

Sautéed kidneys cooked with butter, shallot, brown sauce, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Kidneys, Sauted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Immerse the kidneys in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain and dry them.

  2. Remove the skins and cores, and cut the kidneys into ½‑inch slices.

Sauté and finish

  1. Heat the butter in a sauté pan and fry the shallot slightly.

  2. Add the sliced kidneys and shake or toss over the heat for 3 to 4 minutes.

  3. Drain off a little of the butter, then add the brown sauce, sherry, salt, and pepper.

  4. Stir by the side of the heat until thoroughly hot, but do not let it boil.

  5. Serve as hot as possible.

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

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

  2. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sherry + shallottop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 tender meat that cooks quickly and is the centre of the dish.
Butter
Carries the heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the pan.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and a savoury, rich body that coats the sliced kidneys.
Sherry
Adds a little acidity and aroma that lifts the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the sauce below a boil. Once the kidneys are added, boiling toughens the meat and can make the sauce separate or turn grainy. Heating gently beside the flame keeps the kidneys tender while bringing them thoroughly hot.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Shallotthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, sherry, 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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