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Kidney Soup

A soup made with sliced kidneys simmered in stock, thickened with cornflour, and optionally finished with sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Kidney Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidney

  1. Remove all fat from the kidney and slice it.

  2. Fry the kidney quickly in butter.

Simmer the soup

  1. Place the kidney in a pan with the heated stock and simmer for 2 hours.

  2. Mix the cornflour smoothly with cold water.

  3. Strain the stock onto the cornflour mixture, season, and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the kidney pieces and stir well.

  5. Add sherry just before serving, if desired.

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 + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney
Provides the main meat and body of the soup, becoming tender during the long simmer.
Cornflour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, glossy soup as it comes to a boil.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and fills the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for frying the kidney, giving it browning and a richer flavor.
Sherry
Adds a light acidity and aroma when stirred in just before serving.

The step that matters

Frying the kidney quickly. Kidney turns tough and rubbery if overcooked, and sealing it briefly in hot butter browns the surface and keeps the pieces tender through the later simmer.

“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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