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Calf's Liver

Pan-fried slices of calf's liver seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, cooked in bacon fat or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the liver into half-inch slices.

  2. Cover with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain, wipe, and remove the outer skin and tough veins.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then roll in flour.

Cook

  1. Cook in hot bacon fat or lard until brown and tender.

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 + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,418 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

Calf's liver
Is the main protein that becomes tender and rich when cooked briefly over high heat.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown well and form a light crust in the hot fat.
Bacon fat or lard
Conducts high heat to the liver surface, browning it and adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Cook in hot bacon fat or lard until brown and tender.. Liver overcooks quickly and turns dry and grainy. Hot fat browns the flour coating fast, so the inside stays tender while the outside crisps.

“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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