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Calf's Liver with Bacon

Calf's liver slices are seasoned, dredged in flour, and sautéed in bacon fat until browned, served with crispy bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and flour 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 ↓

Calf's Liver with Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pan-broil the bacon until crispy.

  2. Cover the liver slices with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes, then drain and pat dry.

Cook and serve

  1. Dip each liver slice in bacon fat, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and lightly dredge with flour.

  2. Sauté the liver in hot bacon fat until delicately browned, then turn and brown evenly on both sides.

  3. Serve the liver 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. Pepper + flourtop 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

Calf's liver
Is the main protein, cooked quickly so it browns outside while staying tender inside.
Bacon
Its fat is the cooking medium, and the crisp bacon adds salty, smoky flavor.
Flour
A light dusting helps the liver slices form a thin, browned crust.

The step that matters

Sauté the liver in hot bacon fat. Liver overcooks quickly and turns grainy and tough. Hot fat browns the surface fast, so the slices should be turned once and removed while still slightly pink inside.

“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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