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Stewed Kidney

A stew made from ox kidney, butter, water, ketchup, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Kidney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the kidney into pieces.

  2. Heat the butter in a pan until very hot.

  3. Fry the kidney pieces in the hot butter until browned.

Stew and serve

  1. Stir in the flour, then gradually add the boiling water until it all boils.

  2. Sprinkle in salt and pepper, and stew very slowly for at least 2 hours.

  3. Add the ketchup just before serving.

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. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. 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

Ox kidney
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with long, slow stewing.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the kidney pieces and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it comes to the boil.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy for a tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Stew very slowly for at least 2 hours. Ox kidney is tough muscle meat, and only long, gentle simmering breaks down its connective tissue. Stewing too fast or too briefly leaves it chewy, and a hard boil can toughen the meat further.

“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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