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Stewed Kidneys

Stewed kidneys are cooked in browned butter, flour, water, and ketchup until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the kidneys

  1. Divide the sheep's kidneys in half.

  2. In a pan, heat the browned butter.

  3. Dust the kidneys with flour and place them cut side down in the pan.

  4. Brown the kidneys on both sides.

  5. Pour off most of the butter.

Stew and finish

  1. Add warm water and thicken with flour.

  2. Let it stew until the kidneys are tender.

  3. Flavor with ketchup.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
The main meat, which becomes tender as slow stewing breaks down its connective tissue.
Browned butter
Adds a nutty, toasted flavor and fat for browning the kidneys.
Flour
Coats the kidneys for browning and thickens the warm liquid into a sauce as its starch swells.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that season the stewing sauce.

The step that matters

Let it stew until the kidneys are tender. Kidney is a tough muscle with connective tissue that only softens with long, gentle simmering. Stopping early leaves it chewy, while a hard boil can toughen the meat and make the thickened sauce separate or scorch.

“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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