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Larded Calf's Liver

A larded calf's liver stewed with bacon, lard, tomatoes, onions, and marjoram.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Larded Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the calf's liver well.

  2. Insert the strips of bacon or ham into the surface of the liver using a larding pin.

Stew

  1. In a pot, combine the liver, lard, sliced tomatoes or tomato ketchup, minced onions, and dried sweet marjoram.

  2. Set the pot on hot coals in the corner of the fireplace.

  3. Stew the mixture regularly and slowly for four hours.

Serve

  1. Serve the liver with the gravy around it.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + marjoramtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Onion + marjoramtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Liver + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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 body of the dish, becoming tender and sliceable through slow stewing.
Bacon or old ham
Larded into the liver, adding savory fat and salty flavor that seasons the meat from within.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the liver moist during long, gentle cooking.
Tomatoes or tomato ketchup
Adds acidity and sweetness that give the gravy its body and tangy flavor.
Onion
Releases sugars and aroma as it stews, flavoring the gravy.

The step that matters

Slow stewing for four hours. Long, gentle heat breaks down the liver's connective tissue so it becomes tender rather than tough. Stewing too hard or too fast can toughen the proteins and dry the meat, so the heat should stay low and steady.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, tomato, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, tomato, onion. 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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