Why it works: Lamb and bread work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Fried Kidneys
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the lambs' kidneys in half.
Fry the bacon in a skillet until done, then remove and keep warm.
Cook and serve
In the bacon fat, fry the halved kidneys slowly for 10 minutes, turning often.
Remove the kidneys and keep warm with the bacon.
Stir Worcestershire sauce and catsup into the gravy left in the pan.
On a platter, place the toasted bread, lay the kidneys on top, pour the gravy over them, and arrange the bacon around the edge.
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.
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Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together925 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
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Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,934 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 body of the dish, cooked tender in bacon fat.
- Bacon
- Adds salty, savory fat that flavors the pan and the gravy.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds tangy, savory depth to the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Fry the kidneys slowly, turning often. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery when overcooked at high heat. Gentle, frequent turning cooks them evenly and keeps the interior tender while the surface browns.
“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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