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Calf's Liver a LA Mode

A dish of calf liver cooked with salt pork, onions, spices, and a sauce of vinegar, gravy, and browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,606 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Calf's Liver a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

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

  2. Wipe the liver dry.

  3. Lard the liver with the salt pork, allowing it to project on both sides.

Brown and stew

  1. Heat the dripping, onions, herbs, and spices in a frying pan.

  2. Add the liver and fry both sides until light brown.

  3. Transfer everything to a saucepan.

  4. Add vinegar and enough water to cover the liver.

  5. Cover with a lid and stew gently for 1.5 hours.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Place the liver on a hot dish.

  2. Add the sauce to the gravy.

  3. Strain the gravy.

  4. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  5. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  6. Pour half of the gravy over the liver.

  7. Serve the remaining gravy in a sauceboat.

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

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

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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, becoming tender through slow, moist stewing.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean liver moist as it cooks.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding depth to the gravy.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances the fat.

The step that matters

Stewing the liver gently with the lid on. Liver is lean and protein-dense, so high heat or prolonged boiling toughens it and makes it grainy. A gentle, covered simmer in liquid keeps the proteins tender and the liver moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pork, sauce, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, sauce, vinegar, 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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