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Baked Calf's Liver

A baked calf liver cooked with onions, flour, and fat, served plain or topped with fried bacon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, drain and trim the calf's liver, sprinkle all over with salt, pepper and flour.

  2. Place the liver in a spider with beef or poultry fat and the onions.

  3. Melt the fat and spread some over the top of the liver.

Bake

  1. Cover the spider closely and place in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

  2. Uncover, reduce the heat and bake slowly for one hour, or until tender and well browned.

Serve

  1. Serve plain or with slices of fried bacon on top and decorate with parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

749Calories
40 gProtein
16 gFat
105 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Onion1 medium (110g)44

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. See the original page.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Flour
Coats the liver so it browns well and helps thicken the pan juices.
Beef
Fat that carries heat over the liver, adding richness and helping it brown.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding savoury aroma to the juices.

The step that matters

Covering, then baking slowly. Calf liver is lean and turns tough when overheated. The covered hot start cooks it quickly, and the long, lower-heat bake uncovered lets it become tender while the surface browns gently.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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