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Stewed Kidneys

A stew of ox kidney, onion, butter, mustard, ketchup, and spices simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the kidney well and dry it; cut it into small pieces, removing all the fat.

  2. In a small saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of butter until hot and brown.

  3. Chop the onion and fry it slightly in the butter.

  4. Add the kidney to the pan and fry well.

Make the stew

  1. Gradually sprinkle in the flour, stirring until mixed.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt, ½ teaspoon of pepper, 2 teaspoons of mustard, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of ketchup; stir until it forms a paste.

  3. Pour in 1½ cups of water and stir until it boils.

  4. Cover and let it stew gently for 1½ hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with a border of rice or toasted 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.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Ox kidney
Forms the meat base of the stew, becoming tender during long gentle simmering.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a rich sauce as it heats with the fat and water.
Butter
Carries the onion and kidney flavour and browns the meat for richer taste.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and fries in the butter.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the kidney.

The step that matters

Let it stew gently for 1½ hours. Kidney is tough and needs a low, slow simmer with the lid on so the connective tissue breaks down and the meat becomes tender rather than chewy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, butter, flour, sugar, ketchup, pepper. 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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