Name: Calf's Liver and Bacon
Ingredients: 2 to 3 pounds calf's liver; 2 to 3 slices bacon; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; ½ pint water

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Calf's Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the liver into thin slices.
Match the number of bacon slices to the liver slices.
Fry the bacon until crispy.
Place the bacon on a hot dish to keep warm.

Cook the liver

In the bacon fat, fry the liver slices seasoned with salt, pepper, and dredged in flour.
Turn the liver occasionally to prevent burning.
When cooked, arrange the liver around the dish with bacon between each slice.

Make the sauce and serve

Pour off excess bacon fat.
Add butter.
Dredge the sauce in flour.
Stir in lemon juice and water.
Bring the sauce to a boil.
Pour the sauce in the center of the dish.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 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

Calf's liver: Is the main meat; flouring and quick frying give it a browned exterior and tender interior.
Bacon: Its fat fries the liver and its crisp slices add savory flavor and contrast.
Flour: Coats the liver for light browning and thickens the pan sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and fat to the pan sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich liver and bacon flavors.

The step that matters

Turn the liver occasionally. Liver is thin and lean, so it cooks fast and can dry out or toughen and scorch if overcooked or left too long on the heat. Turning it helps it cook evenly and brown without burning.

“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