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Stewed Kidneys

A stew of lamb or veal kidneys cooked with onions, 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 and soak in salted water for 30 minutes.

  2. Wash the kidneys.

  3. Cover with fresh water and bring to a boil.

  4. Drain.

Cook the stew

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

  2. Add boiling water, coarse sea salt, and pepper to the onions.

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

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

Kidneys
Form the meat that gives the stew its main texture and body.
Onion
Browns in butter to add sweetness and savoury depth to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid as it heats, giving the stew body.
Tomato ketchup
Adds acidity and sweetness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bringing the kidneys to a boil after soaking. Boiling the kidneys first, after soaking and washing, helps remove strong odours and impurities before the stew is made. Once they are in the stew, the gentle simmer keeps the meat tender rather than tough.

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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