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Liver Hash

A fried mixture of boiled beef liver, potatoes, onion, celery, sage, pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and butter or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Liver Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold boiled beef liver and cold boiled potatoes together with chopped onion and celery.

  2. Add powdered sage, pepper, salt, and stale bread crumbs browned in the oven.

Cook

  1. Place all ingredients in a frying pan with stock or melted butter.

  2. Cook together for 5 minutes.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef liver
Provides the main meaty bulk and rich, savory flavor of the hash.
Potatoes
Add bulk and starch that helps hold the hash together while it browns.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture, and brown for added flavor.
Onion
Adds aroma and a mild sweetness as it cooks.
Stock or melted butter
Supplies fat and moisture that help the hash brown evenly in the pan.

The step that matters

Cooking the hash in the pan. Frying the mixture in a single layer with little stirring lets its surfaces brown through the Maillard reaction, which builds flavor. Crowding the pan or stirring constantly steams the mixture instead, leaving it pale and soft.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, liver, potato, onion, celery, pepper, bread):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, liver, potato, onion, celery, pepper, bread. 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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