Name: To Fry Liver and Bacon
Ingredients: liver; bacon; melted butter; sliced lemon

Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Fry Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

liver
bacon
melted butter
sliced lemon

Directions

Cut the liver into slices.
Fry the liver until browned.
Place the fried liver in a dish and top with the bacon.
Serve with melted butter on the side and garnish with sliced lemon.

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.

Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Liver + lemontop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together768 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).