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Veal Liver

Veal liver slices are floured, fried, then stewed in hot water and finished with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and liver match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Veal Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal liver into slices about ½ inch thick.

  2. Wash the slices well and dry them on a towel.

  3. Roll the slices in flour.

Fry and finish

  1. Fry the liver in a small amount of dripping and a little butter until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Remove the liver and add a few tablespoons of hot water to the frying pan, shaking it around. Pour the hot water over the liver.

  3. Cut any uncooked liver into pieces about 2 inches long and stew in a little hot water until tender.

  4. Once cooked, drain the water and add enough milk to cover the liver.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Veal liver
Is the main protein, cooked through to become tender and firm.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown in the fat and form a light crust.
Dripping (or cooking oil)
Conducts heat in the pan and helps the flour coating brown.
Butter
Adds browning and rich flavour to the fried liver.
Milk
Covers the cooked liver to add moisture and a mild, creamy finish.

The step that matters

Frying until thoroughly cooked. Liver that is undercooked can be tough or unsafe to eat, while overcooking makes it dry and grainy. Checking that pieces are cooked through, and stewing any remaining uncooked pieces gently, keeps it tender.

“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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