Name: Calf's Liver and Bacon
Ingredients: 1 lb calf's liver; 4 slices bacon; 2 cups mushrooms, sliced; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Mushroom and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Calf's Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

1 lb calf's liver
4 slices bacon
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cook the bacon and mushrooms

Heat a skillet over medium heat.
Cook the bacon until crispy, then remove and set aside.
In the bacon fat, sauté the mushrooms until golden.

Cook the liver and serve

Season the liver with salt and pepper, then add to the skillet.
Cook the liver for 3-4 minutes on each side until browned.
Serve the liver topped with bacon and mushrooms.

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.

Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Liver + mushroomtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together572 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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

Calf's liver: Forms the main protein; searing browns its surface while the inside stays tender.
Bacon: Renders fat for cooking and its crisp pieces add salty, savoury flavour.
Mushrooms: Release moisture and brown in bacon fat, adding savoury depth.

The step that matters

Cook the liver for 3-4 minutes on each side. Liver is lean and overcooks quickly, turning dry and grainy. Searing over medium heat until browned on the outside, while keeping the inside tender, depends on not leaving it in the pan too long.

“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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Calf's Liver and Bacon