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Pig's Liver, Fried

Fried slices of pig liver served with a claret gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pig's Liver, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Soak the liver and cut it into slices less than ½ inch thick.

  2. Sprinkle pepper and coarse sea salt over the slices.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. Fry the slices in hot fat until browned on both sides, about 15 minutes.

  2. If desired, fry sliced onions with the liver.

  3. Remove the liver and place it on a hot dish.

  4. In the same fat, mix 1 teaspoon of flour smoothly with the fat.

  5. Moisten with 2 tablespoons of boiling stock or water and 2 tablespoons of claret.

  6. Stir the gravy over heat until just boiling, adding more pepper and salt if needed.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the liver and serve hot.

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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 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

Liver
Forms the main body of the dish, browning on the outside while staying tender inside.
Flour
Thickens the pan fat and drippings into a smooth gravy.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour to the gravy as it reduces with the stock.
Stock or water
Moistens the flour and fat, forming the liquid base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the liver until browned. Cooking too long or at too low heat dries and toughens liver, while thin slices brown quickly. Searing on a hot surface gives browning and flavour, so watch the time closely.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, flour. 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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