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Mutton Kidneys

A grilled mutton kidney dish seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and split the kidneys.

  2. Rub with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Pin them open with small wire skewers.

  4. Dip in melted butter.

Grill and serve

  1. Place on a grill, inside down first.

  2. Cook until browned, then turn to save the gravy.

  3. Serve on a hot dish with a little melted butter and parsley on top.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 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

Mutton kidneys
Form the main body of the dish, giving a firm, meaty texture when grilled.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the surface brown and carrying flavour over the kidneys.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the surface and helps draw out moisture for better browning.

The step that matters

Turn to save the gravy. Cooking inside down first seals the cut face, and turning at the right moment keeps juices in the kidney rather than letting them run onto the grill. Overcooking dries the meat and toughens it.

“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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