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Bacon and Liver

A dish of sliced calf liver fried in bacon grease, served with fried onions, bacon, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bacon and Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Slice the liver about ½ inch thick.

  2. Remove the skin from the liver.

  3. Wipe the liver with a damp cloth.

  4. Season flour with salt and pepper.

  5. Dip the liver in the flour.

Cook the bacon and liver

  1. Broil the bacon until crisp.

  2. In the bacon grease, cook the liver, turning it on both sides for about 12 to 15 minutes.

Fry the onion and serve

  1. Chop the onion finely.

  2. Fry the onion in the fat used to cook the liver until golden brown.

  3. Place the liver on a dish.

  4. Pour the fried onions over the liver.

  5. Garnish with bacon and parsley.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf liver
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through in the bacon grease and fat.
Bacon
Adds fat and salty, savory flavor, and its crisp pieces contrast with the soft liver.
Onion
Fries to golden brown, adding sweetness and savory depth to the dish.
Flour
Coats the liver so it browns in the fat and forms a light crust.

The step that matters

Cooking the liver in the bacon grease. Liver turns dry and tough when overcooked. Turning it on both sides over moderate heat for the stated time helps it cook evenly while staying tender inside.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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