Why it works: Sugar and liver work together. They rank in the top 40% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 177 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Ox Liver, to Cure and Preserve, for Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Dry cure
Mix the sugar and salt together.
Rub the liver with the mixture.
Place the liver in a shallow pan.
Turn and rub the liver every day for a week.
Brine and dry
Boil the salt and saltpetre in the water for 15 minutes to make a pickle.
Let the pickle cool.
Pour the pickle over the liver.
Allow the liver to sit in the pickle for six weeks, turning it every other day.
After six weeks, remove the liver.
Drain the liver.
Hang the liver in a cool place to dry.
Cook and serve
When ready to use, slice the liver into thin pieces.
Pour the cold water and any desired flavoring over the slices.
Simmer gently for 45 minutes.
Strain and serve.
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.
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Sugar + livertop 40% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together177 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
- Moist sugar
- Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the liver, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the cured colour and adds to the cure's keeping quality.
- Ox liver
- The main ingredient, which firms and seasons as it cures in salt.
The step that matters
Turning the liver during the six-week pickle. The liver must stay fully submerged and evenly exposed to the brine. Turning it regularly keeps the cure even, so no part is left under-salted or at risk of spoiling.
“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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