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Deviled Kidneys

Deviled kidneys are lamb kidneys sautéed with butter, spices, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,120 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Deviled Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the kidneys in ice water for 1 hour.

  2. Scald the kidneys and cut them into thin slices.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the butter in a pan until hot.

  2. Add the kidneys, salt, curry or paprika, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard to the pan.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the claret and serve.

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. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lamb + mustardtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together229 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together925 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Lamb kidneys
Form the main body of the dish, giving it a meaty texture once cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, carrying flavour and helping the kidneys brown.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth that rounds out the seasoning.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour that lifts the rich kidneys at the end.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the kidneys.

The step that matters

Cook for 5 minutes, then add the claret and serve. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so timing matters. Adding the claret near the end lets it warm through and add acidity without being boiled away, keeping the flavour bright.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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