Name: Liver
Ingredients: 2-3 pounds bullock's liver; 2 slices bacon or salt pork (optional); ¼ cup dripping or lard (optional); 1½ cups broth or water; ¼ pound rice; a few onions; sweet herbs; 1 carrot or turnip (sliced)

Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the liver

Brown the liver in a frying pan with bacon or salt pork, or in dripping or lard.
Remove the liver and bacon from the pan.

Make the sauce and rice

Add broth or water to the pan and bring to a simmer.
Stir in rice, onions, sweet herbs, and sliced carrot or turnip.
Cook until the rice is tender and the flavors meld.

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.

Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + carrottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,477 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bullock's liver: Forms the main body of the dish and browns in the pan for flavor.
Rice: Absorbs the cooking liquid and thickens the dish as it cooks tender.
Bacon or salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor to the pan for browning the liver.
Broth or water: Provides the cooking liquid that softens the rice and vegetables.