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Jus Des Rognons, Or, Kidney Gravy

A gravy made from mutton kidneys, butter, onion, herbs, and water, simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Jus Des Rognons, Or, Kidney Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the mutton kidneys and slice them.

  2. Flour the sliced kidneys.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a deep saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the kidneys, chopped onion, and fine herbs to the saucepan.

  3. Cook while shaking until most moisture evaporates.

  4. Pour in the boiling water, add salt, and cayenne or black pepper.

  5. Let the gravy boil gently for 1.5 hours or until thick and rich.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve and remove the fat.

  2. Optionally, add spice or ketchup to taste.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton kidneys
Provide the meaty base that gives the gravy its body and savory flavor.
Butter
Carries flavor and adds richness as the kidneys and onion cook.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the fat.
Boiling water
Forms the liquid that extracts flavor and, reduced over time, thickens the gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking off the moisture before adding water. Shaking the kidneys until most moisture evaporates lets them brown and concentrate flavor. Adding water too early would dilute that and steam the meat instead of building a rich, deep gravy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, 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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