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Tomatoes and Fried Lamb Kidneys

A dish of fried lamb kidneys served over softened tomatoes on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,013 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Tomatoes and Fried Lamb Kidneys

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and halve the lamb's kidneys.

  2. Roll the kidneys in egg and then in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the kidneys in hot lard for 5 to 7 minutes until cooked.

  2. Remove the kidneys and keep them hot.

  3. In the same fat, fry the halved tomatoes until softened.

  4. Serve the kidneys on top of the tomatoes on rounds of buttered toast.

  5. Pour any remaining grease from the pan around the dish.

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. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Lamb + eggtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,204 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

Lamb's kidneys
Provide the main meat, which cooks quickly and turns firm when fried through.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs stick to the kidneys.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the coating.
Tomatoes
Soften in the pan fat, adding moisture and a slightly sweet, acidic contrast.

The step that matters

Fry the kidneys in hot lard for 5 to 7 minutes until cooked. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if overcooked, while undercooked meat is unsafe. The hot fat browns the crumb coating quickly, so the timing must be watched closely to cook the centre through without drying the outside.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, egg, bread. 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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