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Liver and Bacon

A dish of sheep's liver pieces coated in seasoned flour, wrapped in bacon, cooked with water and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,404 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the sheep's liver into small pieces.

  2. Dip each piece in seasoned flour.

  3. Wrap each piece with a thin slice of fat bacon.

Cook

  1. Place in a greased bag with water and lemon juice.

  2. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

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. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Liver + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together768 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

Sheep's liver
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its rich, dense texture.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that bastes the liver and keeps it moist as it cooks.
Seasoned flour
Creates a light coating that helps the liver brown and hold its shape.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the liver.

The step that matters

Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Liver turns grainy and dry when overcooked, because its proteins tighten and it loses moisture quickly. Checking early helps keep it tender and juicy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour. 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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