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Calf's Liver and Tomatoes

A dish of calf liver pieces fried in butter and oil, served with a tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Calf's Liver and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onion and liver

  1. Heat butter in a pan until boiling.

  2. Add chopped onions and parsley and cook until softened.

  3. Dip each piece of liver in the onion mixture and cook slightly.

  4. Remove the liver.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip in beaten eggs and coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling oil until golden brown.

Prepare and cook the tomatoes

  1. Scald and skin the tomatoes, then slice them.

  2. Combine sliced tomatoes with a little butter, salt, and cayenne, and cook until tender.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 stays tender inside a golden coating.
Eggs
Bind the breadcrumb coating to the liver so it adheres during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Onions
Soften and sweeten in butter, adding a savoury flavour base to the liver.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity that balances the rich liver.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the onions and tomatoes.

The step that matters

Fry in boiling oil until golden brown. Frying at high heat quickly sets the egg and breadcrumb coating into a crisp crust. Overcooking the thin liver pieces toughens them, so they should be removed as soon as they are golden.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, onion, parsley, egg, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, onion, parsley, egg, 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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