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Beef's Kidney Fricassee

A creamy beef kidney dish simmered with parsley, lemon rind, nutmeg, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef's Kidney Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidney

  1. Prepare the kidney as directed: wipe, trim, and blanch in cold water three times without boiling.

Make the sauce

  1. Make the cream sauce.

  2. Beat the egg yolk slightly.

  3. Stir the parsley, lemon rind, and nutmeg into the beaten yolk.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the kidney meat with the sauce and the egg mixture, stirring over low heat until steaming but not boiling.

  2. Adjust seasoning if needed.

  3. Serve on a heated platter garnished with toast points.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney meat
Provides the main body and chewy, meaty texture of the fricassee.
Cream sauce
Supplies moisture and a smooth, rich coating for the kidney pieces.
Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce gently and adds richness when heated slowly.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a little color.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aroma that lifts the richness of the cream and yolk.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolk mixture over low heat. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heating; if the mixture gets too hot or boils, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy, so the sauce must be stirred over low heat until just steaming.

“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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