Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Broiled Liver
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Preheat the broiler.
Dip the liver slices in melted butter.
Lightly coat the buttered slices in flour.
Broil
Broil the slices for 8 to 10 minutes.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,065 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,418 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Liver slices
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender interior under direct heat.
- Butter
- Adds fat that carries heat to the surface and gives the slices a rich flavour and golden colour.
- Flour
- Forms a thin coating that helps the surface brown and hold the butter.
The step that matters
Broil the slices for 8 to 10 minutes. Liver overcooks quickly and turns dry and grainy when it is held under the heat too long. Watch the slices closely and pull them once the surface is browned and the centre has just lost its raw colour.
“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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