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Liver Dumplings

A savory dumpling made with finely chopped calf liver, beef suet, flour, onions, and herbs, boiled and served with browned breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Liver Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dumplings

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped liver, suet, flour, minced onions, bread crumbs, parsley, marjoram, mace, cloves, pepper, and salt.

  2. Wet the mixture with the beaten eggs and combine well.

  3. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into dumplings.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop the dumplings in using a ladle.

  2. Boil the dumplings for one hour.

  3. Serve with browned bread crumbs poured over the top.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Flour + marjoramtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Marjoram + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Provides the main body and rich, savory flavor of the dumpling.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the dumplings moist and tender as they cook.
Flour
Helps bind the mixture so the dumplings hold their shape while boiling.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the dumplings set during cooking.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften within the dumplings.

The step that matters

Shaping and boiling the dumplings. If the mixture is too wet or loosely bound, the dumplings can break apart in the boiling water. Flouring your hands keeps the mixture from sticking, and the eggs and flour give it enough structure to hold together during the long boil.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, beef, flour, onion, bread, parsley, marjoram):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, beef, flour, onion, bread, parsley, marjoram. 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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