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Fried Beef Liver

Thin slices of beef liver are coated in flour or breadcrumbs, dipped in egg, and fried in butter and fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Beef Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the beef liver into thin slices, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Pour boiling water over the slices to seal the meat.

  3. Roll the liver in flour or bread crumbs, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Dip the coated liver in beaten egg.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot fat mixed with ⅓ cup of butter until golden brown.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef liver
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, firm texture when sliced thin.
Flour or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp coating that browns during frying and holds the egg wash.
Egg
Binds the flour or crumb coating so it adheres to the liver during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the frying fat and helps the coating brown.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Fat that is not hot enough lets the coating soak up oil and steam instead of crisping. Liver is also easily overcooked, which makes it dry and grainy, so watch the color and remove it promptly.

“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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