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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

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the kidneys, then slice and flour them.

  2. Melt the butter in a deep saucepan and add the kidneys, onion, and fine herbs.

  3. Cook over medium heat, shaking well, until most moisture evaporates.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour in the boiling water, add salt and pepper, and let it boil gently for 1.5 hours or until thick and rich.

  2. Strain through a fine sieve and remove the fat.

  3. Optionally, add spices or catsup 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 main meaty body and rich flavour of the gravy.
Butter
Carries fat for browning and adds richness to the gravy.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the fat.
Flour (in the method)
Coats the kidneys and helps thicken the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cook until most moisture evaporates. Shaking over medium heat drives off water so the kidneys brown in fat rather than steam. This concentrates flavour before the liquid is added, and a pale, watery start leads to a weaker 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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