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Modern Cookery

Kidneys cooked in a wine sauce with shallots and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Champagne and shallot work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the kidneys

  1. Fry the kidneys for 6 minutes until cooked.

  2. Remove the kidneys and set aside.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In the same pan, add the wine and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the sauce over the kidneys.

  3. Garnish with minced shallots and fresh herbs.

  4. Optionally, add small shallots that have been stewed in butter.

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. Champagne + shallottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together68 recipes

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

  2. Champagne + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Shallot + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Main protein, cooked briefly so it stays tender rather than tough.
Champagne or claret (or port wine)
Deglazes the pan and forms the acidic, aromatic base of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stewed shallots and sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the kidneys for 6 minutes until cooked. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, because their proteins tighten under prolonged high heat. A short, hot fry sets the outside while keeping the inside tender. Remove them promptly once cooked.

“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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