Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Kidney Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the kidney
Wash the kidney and cut it into small dice.
Roll the diced kidney in the rice flour, salt, and pepper.
Brown the kidney quickly in the butter.
Simmer and serve
Pour the stock over the kidney and skim when boiling.
Add the Harvey sauce and mushroom ketchup, then simmer slowly for two hours.
Serve with the meat left in or strain, as desired.
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.
-
Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,515 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ox kidney
- Forms the main body and meaty texture of the soup.
- Rice flour
- Coats the diced kidney and thickens the stock as it simmers.
- Butter
- Browns the kidney and adds richness and flavour.
- Second stock
- Forms the liquid base in which the kidney softens and flavours develop.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds savoury depth and umami to the broth.
The step that matters
Simmer slowly for two hours. Ox kidney is tough and needs long, gentle simmering to become tender. A hard boil can toughen the meat and make the soup cloudy, so keep the heat low.
“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.
You might also like
Rice Fritters84 recipes
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Steamed Rice48 recipes
Rice Griddle Cakes28 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.