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Calf's Liver, a LA Bourgeoise

A braised calf's liver cooked with onions, carrots, herbs, and a butter‑flour gravy, served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Liver, a LA Bourgeoise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the liver

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan over low heat until browned.

  2. Season the liver with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then place it in the butter.

  3. Add the sliced onions and carrots when the liver is half cooked.

  4. Cover the stewpan and bake in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 3 hours, ensuring the liver does not stick to the pan.

  5. Once cooked, transfer the liver to a dish and keep warm.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour the gravy through a colander to remove grease.

  2. In another pan, melt the lard and stir in the flour.

  3. Gradually add the gravy and let it simmer uncovered for 1 minute.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the liver and arrange the carrots and onions around it.

  2. Add capers or pickles if desired.

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 + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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
Is the main dish, cooked slowly so it becomes tender and cooked through.
Butter
Fat for browning the liver and adding rich flavour to the pan.
Flour
Thickens the lard and gravy into a smooth sauce.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding flavour to the gravy.
Carrots
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the liver from sticking and overcooking during the long bake. Liver is lean and delicate, and over a long, slow bake it can dry out or stick to the pan. Covering the pan and keeping the heat low helps it stay moist and tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, red wine, carrot):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, red wine, carrot. 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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