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Calf's Liver, Larded

A calf's liver larded with fat salt pork, cooked in a tomato and herb sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Liver, Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Insert lardoons of pork into the liver, spaced half an inch apart, so they project on both sides.

Braise

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter and add minced onion, pepper, chopped herbs, and strained tomato.

  2. Cover the saucepan.

  3. Place it in a frying pan of boiling water for one hour, ensuring the outer pan stays full.

  4. Turn the liver twice during cooking.

  5. Remove the saucepan.

  6. Place it over low heat, cooking slowly.

  7. When the liver is browned on one side, turn it over.

  8. After forty minutes, boil the sauce sharply for the first time.

  9. Remove the liver.

  10. Keep it warm.

Finish the sauce and serve

  1. Add boiling water to the gravy.

  2. Strain it.

  3. Thicken with browned flour.

  4. Pour over the liver.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

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 cut, cooked slowly until tender and browned.
Fat salt pork
Lardoons add fat and savoury flavour that keep the lean liver moist during cooking.
Butter
Fat for softening the onion and herbs, adding richness to the sauce.
Small onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the base of the sauce.
Strained tomato
Adds acidity and body to the sauce.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.

The step that matters

Slow cooking in the outer pan. Gentle, steady heat keeps the liver tender; boiling sharply or letting the outer pan run dry would toughen the meat and reduce the sauce unevenly.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, liver, butter, onion, 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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