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Liver in a Mask

A baked liver and kidney dish topped with mashed potatoes, bacon rolls, and ham‑parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Liver in a Mask

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the liver and kidneys

  1. Melt the butter in a sauté pan.

  2. Slice, flour, and fry the liver until done, turning often.

  3. Transfer the liver to a clean saucepan with minced kidneys that have simmered in claret for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the Brown Italian Sauce to the liver and kidneys.

Make the filling

  1. In the sauté pan, stir in the grated ham and chopped parsley with seasoning.

  2. Fry the bacon slices separately.

  3. Spread the bacon slices with the ham mixture, roll them up, and secure with a skewer.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a mound of mashed potatoes on a dish, spread the liver mixture on top, and pipe more potatoes over it.

  2. Dredge breadcrumbs over the top and bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 minute.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and garnish with rolled bacon.

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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

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

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Liver
Forms the main body of the dish, with a firm, meaty texture when cooked through.
Kidneys
Add a richer, more savoury flavour and a firmer bite to the liver mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and helps the liver brown lightly in the pan.
Brown italian sauce
Adds moisture and a savoury, glossy base that binds the liver and kidneys together.
Grated ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the liver until done. Liver is lean and its proteins toughen and turn grainy when overcooked, so it should be turned often and removed as soon as it is just cooked through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, butter, sauce, ham, potato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, sauce, ham, potato. 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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