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Sheep's Kidneys Stewed in Port Wine

A stew of sheep's kidneys cooked with Port wine, stock, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sheep's Kidneys Stewed in Port Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim off the pith and skin from the kidneys.

  2. Cut each kidney into four pieces.

  3. Season the kidneys with white pepper, cayenne, salt, parsley, shallot, and baked flour.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a small stewpan over moderate heat.

  2. Add the kidneys and brown them slightly.

  3. Add the stock, red currant jelly, and Port wine to the pan.

  4. Cover with a lid and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the kidneys immediately on a very hot dish.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Shallot + red curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's kidneys
Main protein that becomes tender when browned and gently simmered.
Baked flour
Coats the kidneys and thickens the sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the kidneys.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce as it simmers.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity tang that balances the wine.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. High heat or boiling toughens the proteins in kidney, making it rubbery. A gentle simmer keeps the pieces tender while the sauce reduces and thickens slightly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, parsley, shallot, flour, butter, red currant, port wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, shallot, flour, butter, red currant, port wine. 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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