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Deviled Kidneys

Deviled Kidneys are kidney slices coated in a butter‑mustard sauce, rolled in cracker dust, and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Deviled Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the kidneys and remove hard centers and fat.

  2. In a bowl, mix the butter, mustard, paprika or cayenne, salt, and lemon juice until creamy.

  3. Melt the mixture gently without heating it.

Coat and broil

  1. Coat each kidney slice with the mixture and roll in cracker dust.

  2. Broil the coated slices, turning often, for about 8 minutes.

  3. Add a few drops of the deviled sauce on each slice before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + mustardtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,935 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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 that is cooked and served as the dish.
Butter
Carries the seasonings and adds richness and moisture to the coating.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the fat.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp, browned crust on the outside of each slice under the broiler.

The step that matters

Melt the mixture gently without heating it. Butter that gets too hot separates and loses its emulsion, so the coating turns greasy and does not cling evenly to the kidney slices.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, lemon. 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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