Name: Rognons Grilles a LA Melba- -broiled Kidneys, Melba Style
Ingredients: kidneys; sweet oil; coarse sea salt; fresh mushrooms; freshly grated horseradish; pepper sauce

Why it works: Horseradish and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,646 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rognons Grilles a LA Melba- -broiled Kidneys, Melba Style

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the skin from the kidneys and split them lengthwise.
Run a skewer through each kidney.
Baste with sweet oil and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Broil over a brisk charcoal fire until done.
Remove the skewer and place each kidney on a broiled fresh mushroom.
Fill the cavity of each kidney with freshly grated horseradish.
Surround the whole with pepper sauce.

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.

Horseradish + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,646 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Horseradish + saucetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together775 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mushroom + horseradishtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together269 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).