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Stewed Kidneys and Macaroni

A stew of kidneys cooked with macaroni, seasoned with parsley, pepper, and salt, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Stewed Kidneys and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil water in a pot and season with salt. Add the macaroni and cook for about 20 minutes until soft but not broken.

  2. While the macaroni is cooking, skin and halve the kidneys.

Make the stew

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the kidneys and cook for 2-3 minutes, tossing occasionally.

  3. Sprinkle the kidneys with parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil.

  5. Cover and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Transfer the kidneys to a hot serving dish.

  2. Boil the gravy and pour it over the kidneys.

  3. Arrange the cooked macaroni around the dish as a border and serve 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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, becoming tender when cooked briefly in butter and stock.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping to brown the kidneys and carry flavor.
Stock
Provides the liquid that becomes the gravy, adding savory flavor and moisture.
Macaroni
Serves as a starchy border that soaks up the gravy and balances the rich kidneys.

The step that matters

Simmering the kidneys. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if overcooked. Keeping the simmer low and brief keeps the meat tender while the stock forms a gravy.

“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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