Skip to main content
Main

Calebs Liver Stoved, or Stewed

A stew of liver cooked slowly with broth, vegetables, herbs, and optional wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Calebs Liver Stoved, or Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the liver with large lardoons rolled in minced spices and herbs.

  2. Place the liver in a stewpan and add the broth.

Stew

  1. Heat gently until it begins to simmer.

  2. Add the sliced carrot, halved onion, parsley, and mace.

  3. Stew the liver over a very low heat for 2.5 to 3 hours.

  4. Thicken the gravy with brown roux or browned flour.

  5. Stir in white wine and additional spice if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, removing the herbs and vegetables before serving.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during long, slow stewing.
Brown roux or browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, deeper colour and flavour.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy as it simmers.
Lardoons
Add fat and richness inside the lean liver as they melt during slow cooking.

The step that matters

Stew over very low heat. Liver is lean and turns tough and grainy if cooked hard or fast. A gentle, very low simmer over 2.5 to 3 hours lets the connective tissue soften while the meat stays moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, carrot, onion, parsley, flour, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, carrot, onion, parsley, flour, white wine. 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.

More liver stew recipes

Brown 3 See all 7 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes