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Kidney Soup

A soup made from beef kidney, onion, celery, butter, stock, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kidney Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidney

  1. Cut the kidney into pieces and remove the fat.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the kidney and minced onion until rich brown.

  3. Add the stock, salt, pepper, and celery, then simmer for one hour.

  4. Skim the soup well and strain it.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the flour with cold water and add to the strained soup, then re-boil.

  2. Return some of the best pieces of kidney to the soup and serve very hot.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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 + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Beef kidney
Provides the main meat and rich, savory flavor of the soup.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it browns with the kidney.
Butter or dripping
Carries the frying heat and adds richness and browned flavor.
Flour
Thickens the strained stock into a smooth, slightly body-rich soup.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavor.

The step that matters

Frying the kidney and onion until rich brown. Browning through the Maillard reaction builds deep savory flavor; pale frying yields a flatter taste, while overly dark frying can turn bitter.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, pepper, flour. 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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