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Mutton Kidneys Deoiled

A dish of cooked mutton kidneys seasoned with salt, cayenne, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mutton Kidneys Deoiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and split the mutton kidneys without separating them completely.

  2. Skewer them through the outer edge to keep them flat.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the opened sides first over a clear, brisk fire for 4 minutes.

  2. Turn them over, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper, and cook for an additional 3 minutes.

  3. Remove from the fire, place a piece of butter inside each kidney, squeeze lemon juice over them, and serve hot.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  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
Provide the main meat, which turns tender and juicy when cooked quickly over high heat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, melting into the kidney once it comes off the fire.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury flavour of the kidney.

The step that matters

Turn them over, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper, and cook for an additional 3 minutes.. Salt seasons the meat and draws moisture to the surface, where it helps form a browned crust. Overcooking past the set time dries the kidney and makes it tough.

“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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