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Kidney Soup

A hearty soup made with ox kidney, lean beef, onions, parsley, butter, flour, and stock, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Kidney Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the meat and kidney into very small pieces.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the meat, kidney, parsley, and onion until brown.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add the stock or water, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil, skim well, then cover and simmer gently for 3 hours.

  2. Strain the soup; pound the meat if convenient, or rub it through a wire sieve.

Thicken and serve

  1. Return the soup to the saucepan, and when boiling, add the pureed meat and flour mixed smoothly with a little water.

  2. Simmer for a few minutes and serve.

  3. Optionally, garnish with cooked carrot and turnip cut into small fancy shapes.

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

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ox kidney
Adds a rich, deep meaty flavor and body to the soup once puréed.
Lean beef
Provides the main meat flavor and, puréed, lends body to the broth.
Butter
Browns the meat and vegetables, building savory flavor and carrying aroma.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it simmers, giving it a smoother, fuller texture.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it browns in the fat.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour must be mixed smoothly with a little water before adding, or it forms lumps that won't disperse. Add it to boiling soup and simmer a few minutes so the starch cooks fully and loses its raw, floury taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, parsley, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, parsley, 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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