Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Lemon and Liver Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Peel the Lemon or Seville Orange, removing the white pith.
Slice the fruit into thin rounds and remove the seeds.
Cut the slices into small squares and mince a bit of the peel finely.
Combine the fruit and peel with the prepared Liver in melted Butter.
Warm the mixture gently without boiling.
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.
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Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,137 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + tarragontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,572 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,065 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + livertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together768 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tarragon
The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, liver, butter):
- Parsleyfits better
- Sagefits better
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, liver, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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