Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Mutton Kidneys

Broiled mutton kidneys served with fried bread slices and a gravy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Broiled Mutton Kidneys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Split the kidneys open lengthwise without dividing them, and remove the skin and fat.

  2. Run a fine skewer through the points and across the back of the kidneys to keep them flat while broiling.

  3. Season the kidneys with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

Broil and fry

  1. Broil the kidneys over a clear brisk fire with the cut sides facing the heat for 4-5 minutes, then turn them and cook for another 4-5 minutes.

  2. While the kidneys are broiling, fry the crotitons in a little clarified butter until golden and keep them warm.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once cooked, place each kidney half on a crotiton.

  2. Make a sauce in the pan using gravy instead of water, adding a little wine or ketchup, and pour it around the crotitons.

  3. Serve the kidneys immediately.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton kidneys
Their firm, rich meat is the main body of the dish and browns well under direct heat.
Clarified butter
Adds fat for frying the bread, giving it a golden, crisp surface and a rich flavour.
Bread
Forms a crisp base that holds each kidney half and soaks up the pan juices.

The step that matters

Broiling the kidneys. Kidneys turn tough and dry when overcooked, so they need a hot, brief broil with the cut side toward the heat to brown the surface while keeping the inside tender.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes