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Deviled Kidneys

Deviled Kidneys are lamb or veal kidneys simmered with onion, butter, broth, curry powder, cayenne, and salt, served on hot buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Cut the kidneys into small pieces.

  2. Cover the kidneys with cold water, bring them to a boil, then drain them.

Cook the filling

  1. Combine the kidneys, chopped onion, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer until the onion turns yellow.

  3. Add the broth, curry powder, cayenne, and salt.

  4. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the kidneys are tender.

  5. Thicken the mixture slightly.

Serve

  1. Serve on hot buttered toast.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 with long, gentle simmering.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the butter.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor while the onion softens.
Broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the kidneys and forms the sauce.
Curry powder
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer until the kidneys are tender. Kidneys can turn tough and rubbery if cooked too hard or too briefly. A gentle, steady simmer over the stated time breaks down connective tissue slowly, and the sauce thickens as liquid reduces.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, pepper. 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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