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Kidney Pudding

Kidney pudding made with mutton kidneys, salt, cayenne, dried herbs, shallot, gravy, white wine, covered in pastry and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and white wine work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 881 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the mutton kidneys.

  2. Soak the kidneys.

  3. Slice the kidneys.

  4. Season the kidneys with salt, cayenne, dried herbs, and minced shallot.

Assemble and cook

  1. Lay the seasoned kidneys in the pastry, add gravy and white wine.

  2. Cover with pastry, tie up, and boil for 1.5 hours.

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. Shallot + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together881 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + shallottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together407 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
Form the main body of the pudding, giving it its meaty texture and rich flavour.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and holds in moisture while the pudding cooks.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth so the kidneys stay tender during boiling.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, earthy kidney flavour.
Shallot
Contributes a mild sharp aroma that builds savouriness in the filling.

The step that matters

Tie up and boil the pudding. The pastry must be sealed tightly so steam and liquid stay inside. If it leaks, the filling dries out and the broth thins. A steady gentle boil cooks the kidneys through without toughening them.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, white wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, white wine. 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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