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Chickens’ Livers, Devilled

Devilled chicken livers wrapped in bacon, served on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chickens’ Livers, Devilled

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the chicken livers, then cut them in half.

  2. Mix shallot, parsley, cayenne, and black pepper together, then sprinkle over the livers.

Wrap and bake

  1. Wrap each liver tightly with a slice of bacon and secure with large pins.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 7 to 8 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the pins, place the livers on the fried bread, and serve hot.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Bread + shallottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken livers
Provide the tender, rich main filling that is cooked through in the oven.
Bacon
Wraps the livers, adding fat and salty flavour and browning as it bakes.
Fried bread
Acts as a crisp, absorbent base that soaks up juices from the livers.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet onion aroma that complements the livers.

The step that matters

Baking the wrapped livers. Livers are cooked in a short time, and overcooking makes them dry and grainy. Bacon wrapped tightly around each piece also needs enough heat to render and crisp. Checking at the shorter end of the time helps keep the livers moist and pink inside.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, liver, bread, parsley, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, liver, bread, parsley, pepper. 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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