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Fried Liver

Thin slices of calf's liver are seasoned, dredged in flour, and fried with bacon fat.

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 Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut calf's liver into thin slices.

  2. Place liver in a dish.

  3. Pour boiling water over the liver.

  4. Remove liver from the dish.

  5. Dry the liver with a cloth.

  6. Season the liver with 15 pepper and coarse sea salt.

  7. Dredge the seasoned liver with flour.

Fry

  1. Fry sliced bacon until nicely browned.

  2. Remove the bacon from the pan.

  3. Add the liver to the pan, using plenty of bacon fat.

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

Calf's liver
The main ingredient, providing the dish's rich, meaty flavor and tender texture when cooked briefly.
Flour
Coats the liver so it browns in the pan and forms a lightly crisp surface.
Sliced bacon
Renders fat for frying the liver and adds smoky, savoury flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the liver to the hot bacon fat. Liver is lean and delicate, so it overcooks quickly and turns dry and grainy. A brief, hot sear browns the flour coating while keeping the inside 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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