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Liver in a Mask

A casserole of sliced liver and kidneys baked with mashed potatoes, bacon, ham, breadcrumbs, and brown Italian sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 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.

Prepare

  1. Melt the butter in a sauté pan.

  2. Slice the liver.

  3. Fry the sliced liver until done, turning often.

Make the liver and kidney filling

  1. Add the minced kidneys that have simmered in claret for 5 minutes.

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

  3. Stir the grated ham and chopped parsley into the sauté pan, seasoning to taste.

Make the bacon rolls

  1. Fry the bacon slices separately.

  2. Spread the fried bacon slices with the ham mixture.

  3. Roll the bacon slices up and secure each with a skewer.

Assemble and bake

  1. Create a base of mashed potatoes on a serving dish.

  2. Spread the liver mixture on top of the mashed potatoes.

  3. Cover with more mashed potatoes using a piping bag.

  4. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 minute.

  6. Garnish with chopped parsley and the 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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter 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 meaty body of the dish and sets firm when cooked.
Kidneys
Adds a deeper, more robust savory flavor to the liver filling.
Bacon
Adds fat and salty, smoky flavor that browns in the pan.
Mashed potatoes
Provide a soft, moist base and topping that holds the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the liver brown when frying.
Brown italian sauce
Adds moisture and savory depth that binds the liver and kidneys.

The step that matters

Fry the sliced liver until done, turning often. Liver is lean and its proteins toughen quickly when overcooked, so it turns dry and grainy. Turning it often cooks it evenly and keeps it tender.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, sauce, butter, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, sauce, butter, parsley, 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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