Name: Kidneys a LA Brochette
Ingredients: 2 mutton kidneys; 1 ounce butter; parsley; lemon juice; pepper; salt

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

Split the kidneys from the round side downwards, but not quite through.
Remove the skin and cut off the fat in the middle.
Insert a skewer through the center fat on the cut side to keep the kidney open.

Cook and serve

Melt the butter in a pan and fry the kidneys until cooked through.
Season with parsley, lemon juice, pepper, and salt 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,036 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together34,118 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together27,039 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Mutton + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton kidneys: Provide the main meat, whose texture firms and sets as it cooks through.
Butter: Carries heat into the kidneys and adds richness and browning in the pan.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the kidneys.

“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.