Name: Barbecue of Calf's Liver
Ingredients: ½ pound calf's liver; ½ bay leaf; small piece of celery; very small onion, sliced; 4 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons sherry; 2 tablespoons tomato catsup; salt; pepper

Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Barbecue of Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the liver

Cover the calf's liver with boiling water and add the bay leaf, celery, and onion.
Simmer for one hour.
Remove from water and let cool, then slice into chips.
Place the liver chips in a serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

In a chafing dish, melt the butter over a lamp.
Add the sherry and tomato catsup to the melted butter.
When hot, add the liver chips, dust with salt and pepper, and stir constantly until heated through.
Serve immediately from the chafing dish.

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.

Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver: Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered and then sliced into chips.
Butter: Provides fat and rich flavor as the base for the warm sauce.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Tomato catsup: Adds sweetness and tang, giving the sauce its barbecue character.

The step that matters

Stir constantly once the liver chips go in. The chips are already cooked and only need to be heated through. Constant stirring in the hot butter and sauce keeps them from scorching on the bottom of the chafing dish and spreads the heat evenly, so the sauce coats the chips without the butter separating or burning.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, celery, butter, sherry, tomato, 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Tomato Bisque61 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Barbecue of Calf's Liver