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Kidneys with Tomatoes

A dish of sautéed kidneys simmered in tomatoes, butter, water, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper 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 ↓

Kidneys with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes and cut the kidneys in half.

  2. Sprinkle the kidneys with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Sauté the kidneys in butter for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the kidneys and mix in water and meat extract.

  3. Stir until boiling and pour over the kidneys.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Kidneys
Form the main body of the dish and absorb the buttery, savory sauce.
Butter
Browns the kidneys during sautéing and adds richness to the pan sauce.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that brighten the dish.
Meat extract
Adds concentrated savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Sautéing the kidneys in butter. Cooking kidneys too long or over high heat makes them tough and rubbery. Brief, moderate sautéing keeps them tender while the surface browns, which builds flavor through the Maillard reaction.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, meat):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, meat. 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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