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Preparation of Bacon

Liver cooked with bacon, thickened with flour and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper 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 ↓

Preparation of Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the bacon

  1. Cook the bacon slices in a skillet until crispy.

  2. Remove the bacon and set aside, leaving the fat in the skillet.

Cook the liver and make the sauce

  1. Add the liver to the skillet and cook until browned on all sides.

  2. Sprinkle the flour over the liver and stir to coat.

  3. Gradually add boiling water, stirring until the mixture thickens.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with the crispy bacon.

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 + peppertop 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

Liver
The main protein, which browns in the bacon fat and forms the centre of the dish.
Bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and crisp texture, with its rendered fat carrying flavour into the pan.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy when combined with the boiling water.

The step that matters

Add the boiling water gradually. Flour must be coated and then whisked into hot liquid slowly so starch granules swell evenly; adding it all at once or cold causes lumps and a thin or uneven gravy.

“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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