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Liver Dumplings

Liver dumplings are small, boiled dumplings made from finely chopped calf liver, eggs, spices, and flour or breadcrumbs, served with butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Liver Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dumplings

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped liver, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, allspice, nutmeg (or parsley), and enough flour or bread crumbs to stiffen the mixture.

  2. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into boiling salted water.

  3. Cook until the dumplings float to the surface.

Serve

  1. Serve with drawn butter sauce.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 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

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the dumplings and gives them their rich, savory flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the dumplings hold their shape while cooking.
Flour or bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and stiffen the mixture so it holds together in the water.

The step that matters

Stiffening the mixture. If the mixture is too wet, the dumplings can fall apart in the boiling water. Adding enough flour or bread crumbs gives the dumplings enough structure to hold together while they cook.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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