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Stewed Kidneys

A savory stew of sliced ox kidneys simmered with stock, sauces, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce 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 ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the kidney well and cut it into thin slices.

  2. Roll the slices in flour, pepper, and salt, then brown quickly in the butter.

Stew

  1. Transfer the kidney slices to a stewpan, add the stock and sauces, and simmer slowly for 1.5 hours.

  2. Mix the rice with a little cold stock or water, add it to the stew, and cook for a few more minutes.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 of the dish and becomes tender with slow simmering.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown and help thicken the stock into a sauce.
Butter
Browns the flour-coated slices quickly, adding richness and colour.
Second stock
Provides the liquid that carries flavour and gives the stew its body.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and thickens the stew as it cooks.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth that rounds out the stew's flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering the kidney slowly for 1.5 hours. Kidney is tough connective tissue; long, gentle simmering breaks it down into tenderness. A rapid boil toughens the meat and makes the stew chewy.

“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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