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Calf's Liver Rolls

A dish of calf liver slices rolled with sausage or veal filling, browned and baked with potatoes in a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Liver Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rolls

  1. Scald the liver slices and remove the skin.

  2. Season the liver slices with salt and pepper.

  3. In a bowl, mix the sausage meat or veal with salt, pepper, and any powdered sweet herb except sage. Add the raw egg and mix well.

  4. Spread the mixture over the liver slices, roll them up, and tie with string.

Brown and make the gravy

  1. Heat enough butter or beef dripping in a frying pan to cover the bottom.

  2. When hot, add the liver rolls and brown them on all sides.

  3. While the rolls are browning, wash the new potatoes.

  4. Once browned, place the liver rolls and potatoes in an earthen baking dish.

  5. In the frying pan, stir in the flour and brown it.

  6. Gradually add the boiling water, season with salt and pepper, and let it boil.

  7. Pour the gravy over the liver rolls and potatoes in the baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are done.

  2. Serve hot in the same 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.

  1. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 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
Forms the outer wrap and gives the rolls their main meaty flavor when browned.
Sausage meat or chopped raw veal
Adds fat and moisture to the filling so it stays tender while cooking.
Raw egg
Binds the filling so it holds together inside the rolls.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a gravy and helps it brown for color and flavor.
New potatoes
Absorb the gravy and become tender in the oven alongside the rolls.

The step that matters

Browning the liver rolls. Searing the rolls on all sides in hot fat builds browned flavor through the Maillard reaction. Rolls added to a cool pan steam and turn grey, so the pan must be hot before they go in.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, meat, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, meat, egg, butter, flour. 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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