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Calf's Liver

Sliced calf liver cooked in butter or oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, optionally served with bacon and fried onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Cut the calf's liver into 1 inch thick slices.

  2. Roll the slices in melted butter or oil, seasoned with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Arrange on a double broiler and cook for 8 minutes on each side.

  2. Alternatively, pan-broil the liver in a very hot skillet for the same amount of time.

  3. Serve on a hot dish, optionally topped with freshly broiled bacon.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Is the main protein, cooked to set its texture and develop browned surfaces.
Butter or oil
Coats the slices so they brown evenly and stay moist during cooking.

The step that matters

Cooking the liver for the stated time. Liver is lean and turns dry and grainy when overcooked, so timing on each side matters for a tender result.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, 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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