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Stewed Kidneys

A stew of kidneys, celery, onions, potatoes, and butter, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Parboil the kidneys

  1. Parboil the kidneys in cold water seasoned with coarse sea salt and red pepper for 15 minutes, skimming the water as needed.

  2. Remove the kidneys, cut them into bite-sized pieces, and strain the cooking liquid.

Stew

  1. Return the kidneys to the strained liquid, adding chopped celery, onions, sliced potatoes, and butter rolled in flour.

  2. Season with pepper and stew slowly until the meat and vegetables are tender.

  3. For a brown stew, fry the kidneys in a little butter before stewing.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour and butter thicken the cooking liquid into a richer, smoother stew.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, thickening the stew as they soften.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they cook down into the stew.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor and a little texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Stewing slowly until tender. Kidney is firm, connective-tissue-rich meat that needs long, gentle simmering to become tender. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and make the stew cloudy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, potato, butter, 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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