Why it works: Liver and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,420 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Larks in Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the larks
Stuff the larks with minced fowl liver and herbs.
Lay the larks on slices of bacon in a stewpan.
Cover the larks with stock.
Simmer carefully for 15 minutes.
Prepare the onions
Partly boil the onions.
Cool the onions.
Cut each onion in half.
Remove enough of the inside of each onion to fit a lark.
Line the onion halves with a little forcemeat.
Place a lark on top of the forcemeat-lined onion half.
Cover the lark with more forcemeat.
Ensure the head of the lark protrudes through the forcemeat.
Bake and serve
Cover each onion with a slice of lard.
Wrap each onion in white paper.
Bake until the forcemeat is cooked.
Carefully remove the paper.
Drain off the fat before serving.
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.
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Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,420 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Larks
- Provide the main meat, which is cooked gently in stock until tender.
- Minced fowl liver
- Adds rich, savoury flavour and moisture to the stuffing inside the larks.
- Slices of bacon
- Adds smoky, salty fat that flavours the larks as they simmer.
- 6 spanish onions
- Form the edible case that holds each lark while it bakes.
- Forcemeat
- Lines and covers the larks, holding them moist and binding them to the onion.
- Slices of lard
- Adds fat over each onion, helping it brown and stay moist in the oven.
The step that matters
Simmer carefully for 15 minutes. Gentle simmering keeps the delicate lark meat tender and moist; vigorous boiling toughens proteins and dries it out.
“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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