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Stewed Kidneys

A stew of lamb or veal kidneys simmered with onion, butter, tomato ketchup, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Cut the kidneys into small pieces.

  2. Soak the kidneys in salted water for 30 minutes.

  3. Wash the kidneys.

  4. Cover the kidneys with fresh water and bring to a boil.

  5. Drain the kidneys.

Make the stew

  1. Chop the onion finely and brown it in butter.

  2. Add boiling water, salt and pepper to the onion.

  3. Add the kidneys to the pot and boil gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Ten minutes before serving, stir in tomato ketchup.

  5. Add flour mixed with a little water.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb or veal kidneys
Form the main body of the stew, becoming tender with gentle simmering.
Onion
Browning in butter builds sweet, savoury flavour as the base of the stew.
Butter
Fat that helps brown the onion and adds rich flavour.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour thickens a liquid only when it is dispersed evenly; mixing it with a little water first prevents lumps forming when it meets the hot stew.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, butter, pepper, ketchup, 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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