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Liver, Mexican Style

A baked liver dish with tomatoes, onions, peppers, and bacon, coated in flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Liver, Mexican Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the liver

  1. Parboil the liver slices until partially cooked.

  2. Roll the liver in flour to coat.

Layer and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the sliced onions at the bottom.

  2. Add the sliced tomatoes on top of the onions.

  3. Sprinkle the minced peppers over the tomatoes.

  4. Place the floured liver on top of the vegetables.

  5. Lay the bacon slices over the liver.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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.

  1. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 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
Provides the main protein; parboiling and flouring firm the surface before baking.
Bacon
Renders fat over the liver during baking, adding moisture and savory browning.
Onions
Form a sweet, soft base layer that softens and flavors the dish as it bakes.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that combine with the onions into a sauce as they bake.

The step that matters

Parboil the liver until partially cooked. Liver overcooks and turns tough and grainy quickly. Partial cooking first means the final hour in the oven finishes it without drying it out.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, onion, pepper, 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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