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Fried Calves' Liver

Fried calves' liver served with optional gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Calves' Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the liver slices in saltwater for several hours to draw out the blood.

  2. Season the liver with pepper and salt.

Fry and make gravy

  1. Fry the liver in hot lard until cooked through, frying slowly to avoid browning the outside too quickly.

  2. Thicken the cooking liquid with a little flour and add water.

  3. Let the gravy boil once.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the liver and serve.

  2. Alternatively, serve the liver without gravy.

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 + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calves' liver
Is the main protein, cooked through to become tender and firm.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the outside of the liver.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.

The step that matters

Fry slowly in hot lard. Frying gently lets the heat reach the centre of the slices before the outside over-browns, which would toughen the surface and leave the liver dry and firm inside.

“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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