Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Liver and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and fry
Cut the liver into thin slices and dust each slice with flour.
In a frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy.
Add the liver to the pan and fry until browned on both sides.
Simmer and serve
Pour in the boiling water, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes until the liver is cooked through.
Season with pepper and thicken the gravy with additional flour if desired.
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.
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,418 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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; frying browns it and simmering cooks it through to tenderness.
- Flour
- Dusting helps the liver brown, and it thickens the pan liquid into a gravy.
- Bacon
- Its fat renders into the pan, adding savory flavor and helping the liver brown.
- Boiling water
- Forms the liquid that simmers with the liver and lifts the browned bits into a gravy.
The step that matters
Simmering the liver until cooked through. Liver overcooks quickly and turns dry and grainy when held too long at a high heat. A gentle simmer under cover cooks it through while keeping it 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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