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To Fry Beef Kidney

A dish of sliced beef kidney fried in lard and served with a mushroom sauce or tomato ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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To Fry Beef Kidney

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Fry Beef Kidney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidney

  1. Wash the beef kidney carefully.

  2. Slice it.

  3. Sprinkle the slices with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Dip each piece in flour.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry in hot lard until nicely browned.

  2. Remove from the skillet.

  3. Place on a heated dish to drain off the lard.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the skillet.

  2. Mix in 2 teaspoons of flour.

  3. Add black pepper, coarse sea salt, and 1 cup of water to the skillet.

  4. Boil until thickened.

  5. Stir in mushroom sauce or tomato ketchup to the gravy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 meat, cooked until browned and tender on the outside.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown well and helps thicken the gravy.
Lard
Fries the coated slices, giving a browned crust and rich flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the pan base for the gravy.
Mushroom sauce or tomato ketchup
Adds savory or tangy flavor and color to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until nicely browned. Hot fat browns the flour coating through the Maillard reaction, giving flavor and color. If the lard is not hot enough, the slices steam and turn grey and greasy instead of crisp.

“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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