Why it works: Lamb and potato work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 520 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Kidneys and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy.
Remove the bacon and add the kidneys to the skillet.
Cook the kidneys for about 10 minutes until browned.
Slice the potatoes into thin chips and fry them until golden.
Serve the kidneys with the bacon and fried potato chips.
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 + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together520 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bacon
- Renders fat in the skillet and crisps up to give savoury, salty flavour.
- Lamb kidneys
- Main protein; searing in the pan browns the surface for rich, savoury flavour.
- Potatoes
- Frying turns the thin slices golden and crisp, adding contrast to the soft kidneys.
The step that matters
Cook the kidneys for about 10 minutes until browned. Kidneys overcook quickly and turn tough and grainy. Searing until browned develops flavour on the surface, so pull them when they are just cooked through.
“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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