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Liver Rolls

Liver rolls are liver pieces wrapped in bacon, simmered in broth with vegetables and herbs, served with a caramelized gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Liver Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into thin slices.

  2. Scald the liver in boiling water.

  3. Cut the liver into pieces 2 inches wide and 3 inches long, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Lay a slice of bacon on each piece of liver, roll them up, and tie firmly.

Simmer

  1. In a saucepan, place any remaining bacon scraps, soup vegetable trimmings, and herbs.

  2. Lay the liver rolls on top of the scraps, season with salt and pepper, cover with boiling water, and simmer over low heat for about 1 hour.

  3. Remove the liver rolls, take off the strings, and keep warm on a hot dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy; if not thick, add a little flour.

  2. Color the gravy dark brown with caramel, pour over the rolls, garnish with parsley, and serve hot.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Liver + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Liver
Forms the tender filling of each roll and gives the gravy its rich flavor.
Bacon
Wraps the liver, adding fat that keeps it moist and flavorful as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the rolls.
Caramel
Darkens the gravy to a deep brown color without changing its flavor much.

The step that matters

Simmer gently over low heat. Liver is delicate and turns grainy and tough when it boils hard or cooks too long. A gentle simmer cooks it through while keeping it tender and moist.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Sagefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, flour. 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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