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Croutons of Bread

A stew of diced kidneys and beef simmered with onion, parsley, rice, and stock, served with bread croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Croutons of Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the kidneys and beef into small dice.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Add the chopped onion and parsley.

Cook

  1. Sauté in butter for about 10 minutes.

  2. Pour off the grease, then add stock and rice.

  3. Boil until tender, then strain.

Finish and serve

  1. Pound the meat and rice in a mortar, then pass through a fine sieve.

  2. Stir this mixture back into the stock and heat without boiling.

  3. Serve with croutons of bread.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 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

Kidneys
Provide the main savoury, rich meat flavour and body to the stew.
Beef
Adds substantial meaty texture and savoury flavour to the stew.
Rice
Thickens the stock when pounded and sieved, giving the stew body.
Butter
Fat for sautéing that carries flavour and browns the meat and onion.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as it softens in butter.

The step that matters

Pounding and sieving the meat and rice. Pounding breaks the cooked meat and rice into a fine paste, and sieving removes fibres and lumps. Passing it smoothly through the sieve gives the stock an even, velvety body when stirred back in.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, onion, butter, rice, bread):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, onion, butter, rice, bread. 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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