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Mutton or Pork Kidneys Stewed

A stew of mutton or pork kidneys seasoned with parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, cayenne, butter, flour, stock, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton or Pork Kidneys Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Skin the kidneys and remove the fat without cutting them.

  2. Slice the kidneys into pieces about ¼ inch thick.

  3. Mix parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, and cayenne in a plate and sprinkle over the sliced kidneys.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in a pan and add the kidneys, browning them quickly on both sides.

  2. Dredge flour over the kidneys and shake to prevent burning.

  3. Pour in stock and add lemon juice, cooking for a few minutes.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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

Kidneys
Form the main body of the dish and brown on the outside while staying tender inside.
Butter
Carries the heat and browns the kidneys, adding richness to the pan.
Flour
Dusted over the kidneys, it helps thicken the stock into a light sauce.
Stock
Liquid that cooks the kidneys and, with the flour, forms the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the kidneys quickly. Searing over high heat browns the surface and seals in juices. Overcooking makes kidney tough and rubbery, so only a few minutes of heat is needed before the liquid goes in.

“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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