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Liver Sausages

A sausage made from finely chopped calf liver, bacon, breadcrumbs, herbs, and eggs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Liver Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the liver and bacon very finely.

  2. Mix them together with the breadcrumbs and all the dry ingredients.

  3. Stir in the eggs and moisten with a little milk if the mixture is too stiff.

Fill and rest

  1. Press the mixture into the sausage skins, leaving room for the bread to swell.

  2. Set aside for 5 to 6 hours.

Cook and serve

  1. Prick the sausages well and fry in hot fat until browned.

  2. Serve on toast or with mashed potatoes.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the sausage and gives it its rich, meaty flavour.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that keeps the sausage moist and carries flavour through the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set when cooked.

The step that matters

Leave room for the bread to swell. Breadcrumbs absorb liquid and expand as the filling rests. If the skins are packed too tightly, they can split or burst during resting or frying.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, parsley, thyme, lemon, pepper, egg, milk):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, parsley, thyme, lemon, pepper, egg, milk. 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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