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Kidney Toast

A spread made from blanched sheep kidneys, simmered with herbs, then mashed and thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Kidney Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Split the kidneys.

  2. Blanch the kidneys in scalding water for 1 minute to remove strong taste.

  3. Dry the kidneys.

Make the gravy

  1. Make a strong broth from bones or scraps.

  2. Add glaze to the broth.

  3. Stew the kidneys with herbs, salt, and pepper until tender.

  4. Remove the kidneys from the broth and drain them.

  5. Strain the cooking gravy into a bowl.

  6. Skim any grease from the gravy.

Make the paste and thicken

  1. Pound the kidneys with some butter to make a paste.

  2. Pass the paste through a sieve.

  3. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan.

  4. Stir in 1½ tablespoons of flour until creamy.

  5. Gradually add 1 tablespoon of the gravy.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's kidneys
Provide the main body and rich, savoury flavour of the paste.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky texture.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells with heat.
Glaze
Adds concentrated meaty flavour and body to the broth.
Mixed sweet herbs
Adds aromatic herbal flavour during stewing.

The step that matters

Gradually add 1 tablespoon of the gravy. Adding liquid slowly to a hot flour and butter mixture lets the starch disperse evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth sauce.

“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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