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Calf’s Liver, Saut&.

A sautéed calf liver dish served with a wine and stock gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Calf’s Liver, Saut&.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the calf's liver into thin slices and flatten them by beating.

  2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the liver slices, then dust with flour.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat.

  2. Add the liver slices to the pan and cook until browned on one side.

  3. Turn the liver slices over and add the chopped eschalots, parsley, and chives if desired.

  4. Pour in the wine and boil for 10 minutes.

  5. Add stock as needed to thin the gravy.

Serve

  1. Arrange the liver pieces on a serving dish.

  2. Fry slices of bread if desired and place them between the liver slices.

  3. Pour the gravy into the center of the dish and serve.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Flour + chivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish, cooked quickly to stay tender inside.
Flour
Dusted on the slices, it helps them brown and lightly thickens the pan juices.
Butter
Fat for frying that adds richness and helps the liver brown.
White or red wine
Acidity and flavor that, once boiled down, builds the body of the gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the liver until browned on one side. Liver is thin and cooks fast; overcooking makes it dry and grainy. Browning on medium-high heat creates flavor while the inside stays tender.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, flour, butter, chive, red wine):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

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