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Calf's Liver

A chilled liver dish made by simmering calf's liver, seasoning it, adding cream, and setting it in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,075 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the liver

  1. Place the liver in a saucepan and cover it with water.

  2. Cook until tender, then bruise it with a wooden spoon.

Make the mixture

  1. Add sweet marjoram, clove, pepper, salt, and cream.

  2. Mix thoroughly.

Mold and set

  1. Wet a mold and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Refrigerate until cold and set.

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. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Liver + marjoramtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together144 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  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
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it a soft, rich texture when cooked and mashed.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the mashed liver smooth and creamy rather than dry.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a warm, herbal aroma that balances the richness of the liver.
Ground clove
Adds a strong, warm spiced aroma that complements the liver's savory flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the liver until tender. Liver turns tough and grainy if overcooked, and it must be fully tender before bruising so the mixture blends smoothly. Cooking gently in water keeps the texture soft.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, marjoram, pepper, cream. 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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