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Lamb and Kidney Pie

A savory pie filled with lamb and kidneys, seasoned with celery salt, nutmeg, black pepper, onion, and lemon, baked in a shortcake crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Lamb and Kidney Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the lamb and kidneys in boiling salted water until tender.

  2. Cut the lamb into pieces the size of the kidney halves.

  3. Season the broth well.

  4. Fill a pie dish with the meat and kidneys.

  5. Sprinkle the grated onion and lemon juice and rind over the meat.

  6. Pour the thickened broth over the filling.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the pie with shortcake crust, cut a hole in the center, and fill with more broth.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until well browned.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long gentle stewing.
Lamb kidneys
Add rich, earthy flavor and a soft, tender texture to the filling.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens into the filling.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and broth.
Broth
Adds moisture and flavor to the filling and keeps the pie from drying out.

The step that matters

Pour the thickened broth over the filling. The broth must be thickened so it sets rather than running out when the pie is cut. Pouring in a thin broth would leave the filling loose and soggy under the crust.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, celery, nutmeg, pepper, 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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