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Liver Dumplings

A savory dumpling made with boiled liver, eggs, butter, parsley, spices, and bread crumbs, simmered or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Liver Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix together the beaten eggs and melted butter.

  2. Add parsley, salt, and mixed spice, and stir over low heat until slightly thickened.

  3. Stir in the chopped boiled liver and moistened bread crumbs until well combined.

Cook the dumplings

  1. Form the mixture into balls and let them simmer in broth for 30 minutes.

  2. Alternatively, bake the mixture in a dish until set.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind the mixture as they heat, giving the dumplings structure.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, tender texture.
Chopped boiled liver
Provides the main flavor and a dense, hearty body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the milk and help hold the mixture together with a lighter texture.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until slightly thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, so high heat can scramble the eggs and leave a grainy texture. Gentle heat thickens the mixture evenly and keeps it smooth enough to bind.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, liver, bread, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, liver, bread, milk. 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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