Name: Broiled Calfs Liver and Bacon
Ingredients: 1 large calf's liver (or lamb's), cut into thin slices; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Flour, for dusting; Melted butter, for dipping; Bacon, thinly sliced

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Calfs Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

Soak the liver slices in cold water for at least 15 minutes to blanch.
Drain and dry each piece of liver with a dish towel.
Season the liver with salt and pepper, then dip in melted butter and dust with flour.

Cook and serve

Broil the liver for 10 minutes over a clear fire, avoiding charring.
In a hot frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp but not hard.
Serve each slice of liver topped with a slice of bacon, or arrange bacon around the platter.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,375 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

Calf's liver: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender interior when sliced thin and broiled briefly.
Bacon: Adds salty, savory fat and crisp texture that contrasts with the soft liver.
Melted butter: Carries fat over the surface, helping the liver brown lightly and stay moist under heat.
Flour: Dusted on the buttered surface, it helps the outside brown and form a light crust.

The step that matters

Broil the liver without charring. Thin liver cooks quickly, and high direct heat can scorch the surface before the inside is done. Keeping the fire clear and watching the color helps it brown evenly and stay tender.

“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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Broiled Calfs Liver and Bacon