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Stuffed Liver

A calf liver stuffed with pork, pepper, salt, herbs, and wrapped in salt pork, baked and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and summer savory work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffed Liver

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 the liver

  1. Soak the calf's liver in cold salt water for at least 1 hour, using 2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water; change the water once.

  2. Make a stuffing with finely-chopped pork, pepper, salt, and summer savory or sweet marjoram.

  3. Make incisions in the liver and fill them with the stuffing.

Bake and serve

  1. Roll and tie the liver, then blanket it with slices of salt pork.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through.

  3. Serve cold, sliced, for lunch or tea.

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 + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Pork + summer savorytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 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

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the stuffing and flavour.
Finely-chopped pork
Adds fat and moisture to the stuffing, keeping the lean liver from drying out.
Salt pork
Wrapped over the outside, it bastes the liver with fat as it bakes.
Summer savory or sweet marjoram
Contributes a herbal aroma that seasons the stuffing.

The step that matters

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through. Liver is lean and easily overcooked, which makes it dry and grainy. Baking gently at a moderate heat and checking for doneness helps keep it tender and moist inside.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, pepper. 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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