Name: Stewed Liver
Ingredients: 1 pound liver, cut into 1-inch squares; ½ pound chopped salt pork; 1 good-sized onion, minced; 1 tablespoon sweet herbs; pepper to taste; browned flour for thickening

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 ↓

Stewed Liver

Ingredients

1 pound liver, cut into 1-inch squares
½ pound chopped salt pork
1 good-sized onion, minced
1 tablespoon sweet herbs
pepper to taste
browned flour for thickening

Directions

Prepare

Sprinkle the liver with onion, herbs, and pepper.
Place the liver in a tin pail with a tightly fitting cover.
Set the pail in an outer vessel of cold water and bring to a boil.

Cook and serve

Cook steadily for 2 hours.
Uncover the pail and transfer the liver to a hot dish.
Thicken the gravy left in the pail with browned flour, boil, and pour 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.

Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,420 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 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

What each ingredient does

Liver: Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it cooks gently in liquid.
Browned flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it boils.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the liver and gravy.