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Baked Liver

A baked calf liver seasoned with salt pork, sea salt, pepper, flour, and simmered in water or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,606 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Baked Liver

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the liver

  1. Wash and dry the calf’s liver thoroughly.

  2. Place the liver in a baking pan.

  3. Lard the liver with fine pieces of salt pork.

  4. Sprinkle coarse sea salt, black pepper, and flour over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour 2 cups of boiling water or 1 pint of rich soup stock over the liver.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the liver.

  3. Once baked, transfer the liver to a platter.

  4. Thicken the gravy and add a little sherry if desired, then pour it over the liver.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pork + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together829 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, cooking to a tender, firm texture in the oven.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour as it melts into the lean liver during baking.
Flour
Sprinkled on top to help thicken the pan juices into a gravy.
Soup stock
Creates the liquid in the pan that cooks the liver and forms the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Baking time and size. Liver turns dry and grainy when overcooked, so the time must match its size. Checking it near the lower end of the range helps keep it tender and moist.

“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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