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Stewed Liver and Bacon

A stew of liver and bacon cooked in water with flour, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Cut the liver into slices and the bacon into small pieces.

Cook

  1. In a pan, cook the bacon until crispy, then remove and set aside.

  2. In the bacon fat, add the liver slices and brown them lightly.

  3. Sprinkle the flour over the liver and stir well.

  4. Add the water gradually, stirring to avoid lumps.

  5. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  6. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the liver is tender.

  7. Return the bacon to the pan and heat through 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. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

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

  3. Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Provides the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it simmers.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and crisp pieces that flavor the cooking liquid and liver.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy as it combines with the fat.

The step that matters

Adding the water gradually. Pouring in the liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, which prevents lumps from forming in the gravy.

“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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