Name: Mutton, Fillets, with Kidney
Ingredients: 9 thin slices of mutton kidney, skinned and cored; 18 thin slices of lean mutton; thin strips of bacon; butter; French beans or Puree of Flageolets; 1½ cups brown sauce; ¼ cup tomato pulp; 1 tablespoon sherry; a few drops of carmine

Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton, Fillets, with Kidney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillets

Place a slice of kidney between two slices of mutton.
Lard the meat with thin strips of bacon in 5 or 6 places, then trim the lardoons level with the meat.

Cook

Broil or grill for about 12 minutes, or cook in a buttered tin in the oven under buttered paper, turning halfway through.
Glaze and crisp the surface.

Serve

Serve with a pile of French beans or Puree of Flageolets in the center, and pour around the sauce made from mixing brown sauce, tomato pulp, sherry, and carmine.

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.

Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Beans + sherrytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together165 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Mutton kidney: Adds rich, savoury flavour and a tender, moist interior inside the meat.
Lean mutton: Forms the main meaty structure that wraps the kidney and holds its shape.
Bacon: Its fat melts into the lean mutton, adding moisture and savoury flavour as it cooks.
Brown sauce: Provides a rich, savoury base that carries the flavour of the sauce.
Tomato pulp: Adds acidity and body to the sauce, balancing its richness.

The step that matters

Glaze and crisp the surface. Browning under direct heat builds flavour through the Maillard reaction, but overcooking dries the meat. Watch closely so the surface crisps while the kidney inside stays tender and moist.

“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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Mutton, Fillets, with Kidney