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Lambs' Kidneys, Saute

A sautéed lamb kidney dish with butter, stock, sherry, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,165 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lambs' Kidneys, Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the lambs' kidneys and scald them.

  2. Place the kidneys in cold water, then drain and wipe them dry.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the kidneys in butter until cooked through.

  2. In the same pan, add the stock, salt, pepper, and sherry to the fat.

  3. Pour the sauce over the cooked kidneys 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. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  2. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + peppertop 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

Lambs' kidneys
Form the main meat of the dish, becoming tender when cooked through briefly.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and carries flavour, helping the kidneys brown.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the pan sauce, adding moisture and savoury depth.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the pan sauce, lifting the flavour of the fat.

The step that matters

Fry the kidneys until cooked through. Kidneys turn rubbery when overcooked, yet undercooked kidneys stay unpleasantly firm and may be unsafe. Frying briskly over steady heat and drying them first helps them brown well and cook evenly.

“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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