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Kidney Toast

A toasted bread served with a sautéed kidney and onion mixture flavored with curry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Kidney Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Toast the thick slice of bread and butter it well; keep it hot.

  2. Remove the kidneys from the tin and mince them finely.

  3. Blend the curry powder with the cold water and a pinch of salt.

Cook the filling

  1. In a frying pan, heat 1 ounce of butter and lightly fry the chopped onion for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the minced kidneys and the curry mixture, stirring until heated through and the sauce thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve the kidney mixture on the toast while very 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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 meaty filling that is minced and cooked through.
Curry powder
Adds spice and aroma to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps lightly fry the onion.
Onion
Softens and adds sweetness and body to the filling.
Bread
Forms the toasted base that holds the hot kidney mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring until the sauce thickens. Heating the kidneys with the curry mixture until it thickens sets the sauce; stopping too early leaves it thin and runny, while overcooking can make the minced kidneys tough and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter. 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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