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Broiled Turkey Livers

Broiled turkey livers sautéed with butter, salt, cayenne pepper, and parsley, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Broiled Turkey Livers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the turkey livers for about 15 minutes and drain until dry.

  2. Place the livers in a dry, hot skillet for a few minutes.

Season and serve

  1. Stir in the butter, salt, cayenne pepper, and parsley.

  2. Serve the mixture on toast.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  4. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Turkey + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together190 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey livers
Provide the main body and rich, savory flavor of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving a smooth, moist texture.

The step that matters

Drying the livers before the skillet. Livers that stay wet steam instead of browning in the hot skillet. Draining until dry lets the surface brown, which gives deeper, roasted flavor.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, liver, butter, pepper. 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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