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Broiled Kidneys

Broiled kidneys seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, parsley, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Broiled Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the kidneys open in the center and remove the skin.

  2. Keep the two sides open with a small wooden skewer.

  3. Dust the kidneys with pepper and a little coarse sea salt.

  4. Dip them into melted butter.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the cut side first.

  2. Turn the kidneys to retain the gravy.

  3. Mix chopped parsley with fresh butter, lemon juice, pepper, and salt.

  4. Put a little mixture over each kidney and serve on a hot dish.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Form the main body of the dish and release juices that become the gravy when broiled.
Melted butter
Coats the kidneys to add richness and help them brown under the broiler.
Fresh butter
Melts over the hot kidneys to add richness and moisture to the finishing sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the flavor.

The step that matters

Turn the kidneys to retain the gravy. Turning the kidneys after the cut side has broiled helps seal in their juices, so the gravy stays in the dish rather than running off and drying the meat.

“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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