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Jus Des Rognons; Or, Kidney-gravy

A savory gravy made from mutton kidneys, butter, onion, herbs, and water.

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 the kidneys

  1. Strip the skin and fat from the kidneys and slice them.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a deep saucepan and add the kidneys and chopped onion.

  2. Sprinkle in the fine herbs and shake well over medium heat until moisture is mostly evaporated.

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

Strain and serve

  1. Strain through a fine sieve.

  2. Remove the fat.

  3. Adjust seasoning with spice or catsup 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. 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
Form the meat base of the gravy and give it its savory, rich flavor.
Butter
Carries the flavors of the onion and kidneys and enriches the gravy as it cooks.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory aroma as it softens in the butter.
Boiling water
Forms the liquid that the kidneys simmer in, slowly extracting flavor and thickening the gravy.

The step that matters

Let the gravy boil gently for 1.5 hours. A gentle simmer lets the kidneys become tender and the liquid reduce and thicken slowly. Boiling too hard can toughen the meat and cause uneven reduction, so the gravy may end up tough or thin.

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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