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Liver Loaf

A baked loaf made from ground beef liver, pork steak, milk, cracker crumbs, egg, celery, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Liver Loaf

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 the liver

  1. Slice the beef liver and pour boiling water over it.

  2. Let it stand until cool, then grind it coarsely.

Mix and shape

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground liver, pork steak, milk, cracker crumbs, egg, chopped celery, salt, and pepper. Mix well and shape into a loaf.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated 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.

  1. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef liver
Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its rich, savory flavor.
Pork steak
Adds fat and moisture so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, helping the loaf hold together.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the loaf soft during baking.

The step that matters

Let the liver cool before grinding. Scalding the liver firms its surface and firms the texture, making it easier to grind coarsely and mix evenly. Grinding it hot would be messy and could make the loaf dense and uneven.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, liver, pork, milk, egg, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, liver, pork, milk, egg, 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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