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Deviled Kidneys

A dish of sliced kidneys coated in a butter‑mustard sauce and cracker dust, then broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,816 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Deviled Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. In a bowl, beat together 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. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the seasonings and helping the coating brown.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts the richness of the kidneys.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the buttery, savory sauce.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp coating that browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Melt the mixture gently without heating it. Heating the butter-based mixture too much can separate it into fat and solids, so it will not coat the slices evenly. Melting it gently keeps the emulsion smooth and cohesive.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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