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Liver and Bacon

A dish of floured liver cooked in bacon fat, served with a thickened gravy and toast or pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the bacon

  1. Fry the bacon in a skillet until nicely browned but not crisp, then place it on a platter.

Cook the liver

  1. In the hot drippings, add the floured and peppered liver slices.

  2. Cook the liver for about 10 minutes, basting continually with the bacon fat.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. To make the gravy, mix the flour with the bacon fat and boiling milk, then cook until thickened.

  2. Pour the gravy over the liver and add lemon juice and onion juice if desired.

  3. Serve with dipped toast or pancakes.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Provides the main protein and the tender, meaty body of the dish when cooked briefly.
Flour
Coats the liver and thickens the milk into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
Bacon fat
Carries heat to the liver, browns its surface, and adds savory flavor.
Milk
Forms the base of the gravy, giving it a creamy, smooth texture.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savory flavor and salt to the dish.

The step that matters

Cook the liver for about 10 minutes. Liver turns dry and grainy when overcooked, so it should be cooked just until done while basting keeps the surface moist and evenly browned.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, flour, milk, onion):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour, milk, onion. 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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