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Fried Liver

A liver cooked by boiling, slicing, seasoning, frying, and served with bacon and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Pour boiling water over the liver.

  2. Slice the liver thin.

  3. Season the liver well with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Broil the liver over a clear fire.

  5. Rub the liver with cold butter.

  6. Serve the liver hot with small slices of fat bacon.

Make the gravy and fried bits

  1. Trim bits of liver and flour the trimmed bits.

  2. Lightly fry the floured bits with a sliced onion.

  3. Stew the fried liver and onion in water with savory herbs, salt, and pepper for gravy.

  4. Alternatively, steep the liver in vinegar and water for 30 minutes.

  5. Slice the liver thin and roll the sliced liver in flour.

  6. Fry until crisp.

  7. Serve with fried onions.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Liver
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked tender or crisp depending on the method.
Flour
Coats the liver so it browns and crisps when fried.
Fat bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor when served alongside the hot liver.
Onion
Softens and sweetens during frying, adding flavor to the gravy and fried pieces.
Cold butter
Adds richness and fat to the liver's surface.

The step that matters

Frying the floured liver until crisp. Flour coats the liver so it browns, but overcooking toughens liver proteins and dries it out, so it should be fried briefly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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