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To Roast a Calf or Lamb's Liver

A roasted calf or lamb liver served with a butter, ketchup, and vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,232 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

To Roast a Calf or Lamb's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and roast

  1. Lard the liver with bacon.

  2. Fasten it to a spit.

  3. Baste it with butter while roasting.

  4. Roast until well done.

Serve

  1. Serve with a mixture of beaten butter, ketchup, and a little vinegar.

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. Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Ketchup + vinegartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Butter + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lamb + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together509 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
The main ingredient, giving the dish its dense, rich meat.
Bacon
Adds fat that melts into the liver, keeping it moister and adding savory flavor.
Butter
Basting fat that promotes browning and adds richness to the roasted surface.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and tang to the serving sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that cuts the richness of the liver and butter.

The step that matters

Roast until well done. Liver turns dry, grainy, and tough when overcooked, and it is easy to push past the point of tenderness. Roasting only until fully cooked, while basting to keep the surface moist, helps preserve a softer texture.

“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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