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Fried Liver

Fried liver is a dish of sliced calf liver cooked in beef dripping and served with a tomato‑based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the liver into thick slices.

  2. Dust the slices with flour.

  3. Season the slices with salt and pepper.

Fry the liver

  1. Heat the beef dripping in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Cook the liver gently, turning constantly until done.

  3. Place the liver on a hot dish with fried tomatoes.

Make the sauce

  1. In the same pan, stir flour into the remaining dripping until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the brown stock and tomato catsup, stirring well.

  3. Let the sauce boil.

  4. Season the sauce with pepper, cayenne, and salt.

  5. Strain the sauce into the 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.

  1. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Liver + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

Calves' liver
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked tender by gentle frying.
Flour
Dusting helps the slices brown, and stirred into the dripping it thickens the sauce.
Beef dripping
Fat for frying that adds richness and browns the liver's surface.
Brown stock
Liquid base that gives the sauce its savory body.
Tomato catsup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the liver gently, turning constantly until done. Liver is delicate and turns dry and tough when overcooked at high heat. Gentle heat and constant turning cook the slices evenly and keep them tender.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour, pepper, beef. 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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