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Mutton Kidneys Broiled

Broiled mutton kidneys seasoned with salt, cayenne, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mutton Kidneys Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and split the mutton kidneys without separating them completely.

  2. Skewer them through the outer edge to keep them flat.

Broil

  1. Place the opened sides facing the fire, which should be clear and brisk.

  2. After four minutes, turn them over and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. Cook for an additional three minutes, then remove from the fire.

Finish and serve

  1. Add a piece of butter inside each kidney and squeeze lemon juice over them.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton kidneys
Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, meaty texture over direct heat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture inside the kidneys as they cook and melt.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty flavour of the kidneys.

The step that matters

Turning and timing on the fire. Kidneys overcook quickly and turn tough and rubbery. Cooking the cut sides first over a clear, brisk fire sears them, and the timed turn cooks them through while keeping them tender.

“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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