Name: Roast Spiced Liver
Ingredients: 1 calf's liver; 1 small onion, cut into bits; 1 clove of garlic, cut into bits; dried red or green pepper, cut into bits; 1 cup water; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon flour

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Roast Spiced Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prick the calf's liver in 15 to 20 places with a sharp knife.
In 10 of the holes, place small bits of onion.
In 3 holes, place 1 clove of garlic each.
In the remaining holes, place bits of dried red or green pepper.
Baste constantly with a mixture of water, butter, and flour.
When cold, slice thin and 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the clove

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

Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

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