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Modern Cookery

A liver dish stewed in vinegar, onion, herbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the liver overnight in vinegar with sliced onion and herbs to whiten and firm it.

  2. Trim small bits of liver, flour them, and fry with sliced onion until lightly browned.

Stew and season

  1. Add 3 cups of water to the pan with peppercorns and herbs, and stew for 1 to 1½ hours.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and add lemon juice or pickle for flavor.

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. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Main protein; soaking in vinegar whitens and firms it before cooking.
Vinegar
Acidity that firms and whitens the liver during the overnight soak.
Flour
Coats the liver pieces so they brown lightly when fried.
Sliced onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns with the liver.
Lemon juice or pickle
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the finished stew.

The step that matters

Overnight vinegar soak. Vinegar's acidity firms the liver's proteins and lightens its colour. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the liver softer, darker and more likely to taste strongly of iron.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, vinegar, onion, flour):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, vinegar, onion, flour. 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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