Skip to main content
Main

To Roast Calf's Liver, Marinaded

A calf's liver soaked in a vinegar and water marinade, stuffed with bread crumbs and seasonings, wrapped in bacon and roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Calf's Liver, Marinaded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the liver in a mixture of vinegar and water with parsley, thyme, marjoram, and garlic for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the liver.

  3. Dry the liver gently.

Stuff and wrap

  1. Make a deep incision in the liver.

  2. Fill the incision with bread crumbs, onions, sage, salt, and pepper.

  3. Roll up the liver.

  4. Skewer the liver.

  5. Cover the liver with thin slices of fat bacon.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the liver before the fire for 1 hour.

  2. Serve in its own gravy.

  3. Garnish with sliced cucumber.

  4. Drizzle with lemon juice.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
The main ingredient, a dense, rich meat that the stuffing and bacon surround.
Vinegar
Its acidity softens the liver's surface in the marinade and adds a sharp tang.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and bind the stuffing so it holds inside the rolled liver.
Fat bacon
Its fat bastes the liver as it roasts, helping keep it moist and adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Roast the liver for the stated time and no longer. Liver is lean and delicate. Overcooking tightens its proteins and squeezes out moisture, leaving it dry, grainy, and tough, so it should be checked as it nears done.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, vinegar, parsley, thyme, marjoram, garlic, bread):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, vinegar, parsley, thyme, marjoram, garlic, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes