Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Kidneys on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the fat from the sheep's kidneys and cut them in half into flat pieces.
Remove the skin from the kidneys.
Heat a little butter in a frying pan.
Place the kidneys cut side down in the hot pan.
After a few minutes, turn the kidneys and fry the other side until just done.
Serve the kidneys on hot buttered toast, optionally frying some of the fat to serve with it.
Drizzle with Worcestershire sauce if desired.
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.
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
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