Name: Sheep's Liver Curry
Ingredients: 1 good sized sheep's liver; currystuffs as per recipe No. 26; 2 oz chattack ghee (¼ cup); 1 onion, chopped; coarse sea salt to taste; optional: a few young brinjals, cut small

Why it works: Liver and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,420 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Sheep's Liver Curry

Ingredients

1 good sized sheep's liver
currystuffs as per recipe No. 26
2 oz chattack ghee (¼ cup)
1 onion, chopped
coarse sea salt to taste
optional: a few young brinjals, cut small

Directions

Remove the lungs from the liver.
Wash the liver in cold water, then pour boiling water over it and steep for at least 30 minutes.
Remove from water and cut into small squares, about ¼ inch thick.
Wash again in cold water.
Prepare the liver like any other curry, typically made dry.
If desired, add the chopped brinjals.

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.

Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,420 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ghee + oniontop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,310 recipes
Liver + gheetop 35% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together13 recipes

Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).