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Calf's Liver Aux Fines Herbes & Sauce Piquante

Sliced calf's liver coated in flour and fried, served with a sauce of fine herbs, vinegar, lemon juice, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calf's Liver Aux Fines Herbes & Sauce Piquante

8 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Procure a calf's liver as white as possible, and cut it into slices of a good and equal shape.

  2. Dip the slices in flour.

  3. Fry the floured slices in a little butter until they are a good colour.

  4. When done, place the liver on a dish that keeps it hot before the fire.

Make the sauce

  1. Mince the herbs very finely.

  2. Put the minced herbs in the frying pan with a little more butter.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients (vinegar, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and water).

  4. Simmer gently until the herbs are done.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the liver.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

465Calories
13 gProtein
1 gFat
97 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked into tender slices that carry the sauce.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown evenly and form a light crust when fried.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp, piquant acidity that defines the sauce.
Lemon juice
Contributes bright acidity that balances the richness of the liver and butter.
Shallots (in the method)
Add a mild, savoury onion aroma that deepens the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the floured slices. Fry until a good colour forms but not so long that the liver toughens and dries. Flour helps the surface brown while the inside stays tender, so heat and timing matter.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Cherryfits less well
  4. Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, vinegar, parsley, pepper. 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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