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Fried Liver

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Liver

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour boiling water over the liver and slice it thin.

  2. Season well with black pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Broil over a clear fire.

  4. Rub cold butter on the liver and serve hot with small slices of fat bacon.

  5. Trim bits of liver, flour them, and lightly fry with sliced onion.

  6. Stew the fried liver and onion in water with savory herbs, salt, and pepper.

  7. For a crisp version, steep the liver in vinegar and water for 30 minutes, then slice thin, roll in flour, fry until very crisp, and serve with fried onions.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, butter, flour, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, butter, flour, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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