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Calf's Liver Dumplings

A dumpling made from grated calf liver mixed with butter, eggs, seasonings, and bread crumbs, boiled until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 957 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calf's Liver Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter until smooth.

  2. Add the beaten eggs to the creamed butter and mix well.

  3. Combine the liver with the egg mixture.

  4. Season with garlic, marjoram, pepper, salt, and lemon peel.

  5. Stir in enough bread crumbs to form a dough for dumplings.

  6. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the dumplings for 10 minutes before serving.

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. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Garlic + marjoramtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together616 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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 dumplings and gives them a rich, savory flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help hold the dumplings in shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the mixture for a tender texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and stiffen the mixture so it can be shaped into dumplings.

The step that matters

Stir in enough bread crumbs to form a dough. Too few crumbs leave the mixture too wet to hold its shape in boiling water, while too many make the dumplings dense and dry. Adding crumbs gradually until the dough just holds together gives a dumpling that is firm but still tender.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, egg, marjoram, pepper, lemon, bread. 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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