Skip to main content
Main

Beef Kidney

Beef kidney slices sautéed and simmered in a wine and gravy sauce, finished with butter and lemon, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Beef Kidney

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Kidney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and fry

  1. Slice the kidney thinly, removing the skin and fat.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then sprinkle with minced parsley or parsley and eschalots.

  3. Fry the slices over high heat until browned on both sides.

Make the sauce

  1. Stir in 1 teaspoon of flour, then gradually add 1 cup of gravy and ⅓ cup of white wine.

  2. Bring the sauce to a boil, then add a small piece of butter and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Serve in a hot dish garnished with fried bread.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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, which is tender when sliced thin and browned quickly.
Flour
Thickens the sauce slightly as it combines with the gravy and wine.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds brightness that balances the richness of the kidney and sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the kidney over high heat until browned. Kidney overcooks quickly and turns tough and rubbery if held too long. A short, hot sear browns the surface and keeps the slices tender inside.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, parsley, flour, white wine, lemon, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, parsley, flour, white wine, lemon, butter. 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.

More beef kidney recipes

Stew 16Fried 12in Gravy 8Stewed 5French 3 See all 39 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes