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Liver Soup

A hearty soup made with ham, onion, liver, and optional heart, bacon, and egg, thickened with brown roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Liver Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the ham and onion in 2 quarts of water until reduced by half.

Make the soup

  1. Chop the left-over liver and a little ham, then add to the stock.

  2. If available, mince the heart and add it to the soup.

  3. Chop any left-over bacon and add for flavor.

  4. If you have a cold egg, mince it and add to the soup.

  5. Season to taste and thicken with brown roux.

  6. Season with pepper and minced parsley.

Serve

  1. Pour the soup over croutons in a tureen.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned ham
Gives the stock its main savory, salty flavor as it simmers.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock.
Liver
Provides the main meaty body and rich flavor of the soup.
Brown roux
Thickens the soup, giving it a smooth, fuller body.

The step that matters

Thicken with brown roux. Roux must be cooked smoothly and fully incorporated; lumps or undercooked flour leave a pasty taste and an uneven texture. Stir it in gradually into the hot liquid so it disperses evenly and thickens without clumping.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, liver, egg, pepper, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, liver, egg, pepper, parsley. 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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