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Liver Cocktail

A chilled liver mixture with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, salt, and pepper served in cocktail glasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Liver Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Crush the liver to yield 4 tablespoons.

  2. Mix the crushed liver with the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice in a ratio of 1 part liver to 2.5 parts sauce.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Chill thoroughly.

  5. Serve in cocktail glasses.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Liver
Provides the rich, savory base that gives the cocktail its main flavor and body.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity, and makes up most of the liquid base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the liver.

The step that matters

Mix the crushed liver with the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice in a ratio of 1 part liver to 2.5 parts sauce.. The ratio sets both flavor and texture. Too much liver makes the mixture heavy and strongly flavored, while too little leaves it thin and bland. Measuring by the stated ratio keeps the balance consistent.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Red currantfits less well
  4. Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, tomato, ketchup, sauce, pepper. 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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