Name: Baked Liver and Bacon
Ingredients: 1 lb Spanish onions; ½ lb liver; 2 oz bacon; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 4 tablespoons bread crumbs

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Boil the onions with their skins in a pan of boiling water with the salt for one hour.
Cut the liver and bacon into strips.
Place the liver in a pie dish and season with a little salt and pepper.
Remove the skins from the onions.
Chop the onions.

Assemble and bake

Add the chopped onions to the pie dish.
Top with bacon strips.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + livertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,420 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 and becomes tender and savory when cooked through.
Bacon: Adds fat and salty, smoky flavor as it renders over the liver.
Spanish onions: Add sweetness and moisture, softening during the initial boil.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, browned topping that helps keep the surface from drying out.