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Kidney Pudding

A savory pudding made from minced mutton kidneys, bread crumbs, suet, egg, milk, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Skin and mince the kidneys finely.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine minced kidneys, bread crumbs, suet, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  2. Beat the egg and mix it into the kidney mixture.

  3. Add the milk and stir until well combined.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30-40 minutes.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 meaty body and savoury flavour of the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, set structure.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture so the crumbs soften and the pudding stays tender.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the texture and richness of the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven. Baking gently at the stated temperature lets the egg set the mixture through without drying it out or curdling it. Too high a heat can toughen the egg and make the pudding dry.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, bread, egg, parsley, nutmeg, pepper, milk):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, egg, parsley, nutmeg, pepper, milk. 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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