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Baked Liver Larded

A baked calf liver larded with fat pork and vegetables, simmered in seasoned water and finished with lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Baked Liver Larded

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

  1. Skewer the liver into shape and lard it with strips of fat pork.

  2. Surround the liver with the chopped vegetables.

  3. Add the seasoning to the boiling water and pour it over the liver.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.

  2. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from the pan.

  4. Add lemon juice to the liquid.

  5. Strain over the liver.

  6. Serve.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 is the protein that the braising liquid cooks gently.
Fat salt pork
Strips of fat threaded through the liver add moisture and richness as they melt during baking.
Onion
Chopped vegetables release sweetness and aroma into the liquid as they cook around the liver.
Carrot
Chopped vegetables release sweetness and aroma into the liquid as they cook around the liver.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the strained sauce has body.

The step that matters

Covered baking at 350°F (175°C). Baking covered in the hot liquid cooks the liver gently with moisture. Too much heat or time dries and toughens liver, which is a fine-textured protein that overcooks quickly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, carrot, onion, pepper, butter, flour. 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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