Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Stewed Kidneys
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the kidneys and soak them in lukewarm salted water for 1 hour.
Drain, remove the skin, cut them open, and remove the tubes.
Cover with cold water, heat gradually to boiling, then cook just below boiling for 20 minutes; drain.
Cut into pieces, season, roll in flour, and brown in hot fat.
Cover with boiling water, cover, and cook just below boiling for 1.5 hours or until tender. Add onion if desired.
Thicken with flour mixed to a paste with cold water; season to taste.
Serve on toast, garnished with toast points and parsley.
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.
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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