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Kidney-and-Bacon Rolls

A baked roll of bacon wrapped around a kidney, seasoned with onion, breadcrumbs, parsley, lemon zest, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Kidney-and-Bacon Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the onion, breadcrumbs, parsley, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.

  3. Slightly moisten the mixture with the beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the mixture over the bacon slices and place a kidney on each.

  2. Roll the bacon around the kidney and secure with skewers.

  3. Arrange the rolls in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds together around the kidney.
Egg
Lightly binds the breadcrumb mixture so it sticks together when rolled.
Bacon
Wraps the kidney, releasing fat that keeps it moist and browning as it bakes.
Kidneys
Form the central filling; cooking firms their texture and gives the dish its main flavour.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the breadcrumb filling.

The step that matters

Moistening the filling with egg. Too much egg makes the mixture soggy and loose, so it will not hold around the kidney; too little lets it crumble and fall out during baking. Add it gradually until the mixture just clings together.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, lemon, pepper, egg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, lemon, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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