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Fried Liver and Bacon

A quick fried liver dish cooked with bacon, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,375 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fried Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into thin slices and keep it cold until ready to cook.

  2. Slice the liver into pieces about ⅓ inch thick.

  3. If using calf or sheep's liver, wash it in cold water and drain.

  4. If using beef liver, cover with boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Cook

  1. In a hot frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp, then remove it.

  2. Move the pan to a cooler part of the stove.

  3. Add the liver to the hot fat.

  4. Cook for 8 minutes, turning often.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Arrange the liver on a warm platter and garnish with the bacon.

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. 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

Liver
Forms the main body of the dish, with a firm, tender texture when cooked briefly.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pan for frying the liver and adds crisp, salty browning.

The step that matters

Cook the liver over moderate heat for a short time. Liver turns dry and grainy when overcooked, because its proteins tighten and lose moisture. Turning it often and keeping the heat controlled helps it cook evenly while staying tender inside.

“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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