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To Fry Liver As Cutlets

Thin slices of liver are fried after being coated in egg and cracker crumbs, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,469 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Fry Liver As Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the liver into thin slices.

  2. Scald the sliced liver, then let it drain or wipe it dry with a cloth if using immediately.

  3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the eggs well in a bowl.

  2. Dip each piece of liver in the egg, then coat the liver with powdered cracker or meal.

  3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the liver until brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce.

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 + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Liver + tomatotop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Liver + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together499 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Liver + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,177 recipes

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

  5. Egg + tomatotop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,890 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

Liver
Forms the main body of the cutlet and gives it a rich, meaty flavour.
Eggs
Bind the coating so the cracker or meal sticks to the liver slices.
Powdered cracker or meal
Forms a crisp, browned crust when fried in oil.

The step that matters

Drain or dry the scalded liver before coating. Surface moisture stops the egg and crumb coating from sticking evenly and makes the crust steam rather than brown, so the cutlets can fall apart or turn soggy in the pan.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, egg, sauce. 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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