Name: A Nice Way of Cooking Calf's or Pig's Liver
Ingredients: Calf's or pig's liver; boiling water; cold water; onion; coarse sea salt; nutmeg; butter

Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

A Nice Way of Cooking Calf's or Pig's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the liver into slices half an inch thick.
Pour boiling water over the liver and then drain it completely.
Let the liver brown in its own juices, turning until brown on both sides.
In a frying pan, add enough cold water to make gravy.
Slice in a small amount of onion, add salt, nutmeg, and a bit of butter.
Let it boil once, then return the liver for one more minute.

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.

Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,420 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Onion + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,371 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).