Skip to main content
Main

Oxford Receipt for Mutton Kidneys.

Mutton kidneys sautéed and served atop butter‑fried croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oxford Receipt for Mutton Kidneys.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the croutons in butter until golden, then remove and keep warm.

  2. Split the kidneys in half, removing skin and fat.

  3. Season the kidneys with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Arrange the kidneys in a clean frying pan and cook until done.

  2. Serve the kidneys on top of the croutons.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + muttontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  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. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 meat, cooked until tender and savoury in the pan.
Butter
Fries the croutons to a golden, rich, crisp surface and adds fat flavour.
Bread
Forms the croutons that hold the kidneys and soak up their juices.

The step that matters

Cook the kidneys until done. Kidneys turn rubbery when overcooked, and undercooked kidney is unsafe to eat. Cook them just through over steady heat, and avoid crowding the pan so they brown rather than steam.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes