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Beef Kidney

A sautéed beef kidney served with a mushroom ketchup and lemon gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Beef Kidney

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Beef Kidney

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the kidney

  1. Dredge the beef kidney with flour, pepper, and salt.

  2. Fry the kidney on both sides until cooked through.

  3. Remove the kidney from the pan and empty the pan.

Make the gravy

  1. In the same pan, melt a small slice of butter, then add 2 teaspoons of flour, pepper, and salt to the butter.

  2. Pour in 1 cup of boiling water and stir well, then simmer the gravy for one minute.

  3. Add mushroom ketchup, lemon juice, eschalot vinegar, and minced herbs to taste.

  4. Optionally, add finely chopped onion if desired.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

Beef kidney
Is the main protein; frying it briefly seals the surface and gives it a browned, savoury crust.
Flour
Coats the kidney for browning and thickens the butter and water into a gravy.
Butter
Carries the flour in the pan and adds richness and flavour to the gravy.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich kidney and gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the kidney on both sides until cooked through. Kidney is easily overcooked, which makes it tough and gritty. Cooking it just through keeps it tender while the floured surface browns well.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, pepper, butter, mushroom, ketchup, vinegar):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Red currantfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, pepper, butter, mushroom, ketchup, vinegar. 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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