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Larded Calf's Liver

A larded calf's liver stewed with bacon, lard, tomatoes, onion, and marjoram.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Larded Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the calf's liver well.

  2. Insert the strips of bacon or salt pork into the liver using a larding pin.

Stew

  1. In a pot, combine the liver, lard, a little water, tomatoes or tomato ketchup, minced onion, and dried sweet marjoram.

  2. Set the pot on hot coals and stew slowly for four hours.

Serve

  1. Serve the liver with the gravy around it.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + marjoramtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  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
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow stewing.
Bacon or salt pork
Larded strips add fat that melts into the liver, keeping it moist and savory.
Lard
Adds fat to the pot, helping the liver brown and enriching the gravy.
Tomatoes or tomato ketchup
Provides acidity and body to the gravy, balancing the richness of the meat.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma as it cooks down into the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew slowly for four hours. Long, gentle stewing breaks down the connective tissue and fibers of liver, making it tender. Too much heat can toughen liver and dry it out, so the pot should simmer gently rather than boil.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, tomato, onion. 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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