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Calf's Liver a LA Mode

A stew of calf liver cooked with onions, herbs, and spices, finished with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Calf's Liver a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Wash the liver thoroughly and soak it in salted water for 30 minutes.

  2. Wipe the liver, make incisions about 1 inch apart, and lard with strips of pork.

Brown and stew

  1. Fry the onions and herbs in the butter or dripping until soft.

  2. Remove the onions and herbs, then add the liver to the pan and fry both sides until light brown.

  3. Transfer everything to a saucepan, add vinegar and just enough water to cover the liver.

  4. Cover closely and stew gently for 1.5 hours.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Place the liver on a hot dish, strain the gravy, and return it to the heat.

  2. Thicken the gravy with 1 tablespoon of browned flour, add Worcestershire sauce and spices, then boil.

  3. Pour some gravy over the liver and serve the rest in a gravy boat.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during slow stewing.
Fat salt pork
Strips threaded through the liver add fat and savoury flavour as it cooks.
Onions
Softened in fat, they add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich liver and gravy.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the liver.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury depth and a touch of acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew gently with the lid on. Liver turns tough and grainy if it boils or cooks too fast, so a low, covered simmer keeps it tender and moist.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pork, butter, onion, parsley, marjoram, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, butter, onion, parsley, marjoram, vinegar. 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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