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Scallopped Liver

Scalloped liver is a dish of thinly sliced liver cooked in a gravy of onion, herbs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scallopped Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the liver into very thin strips.

  2. Fry the strips until brown.

Make the gravy

  1. Peel the onion and chop it finely.

  2. Heat the dripping in a pan.

  3. Add the flour and stir until brown.

  4. Add the water.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  6. Stir in the onion, mixed herbs, liver, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Keep the mixture just below boiling for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve the liver on a hot dish.

  3. Pour the gravy over the liver.

  4. Garnish with parsley.

  5. Serve with toast.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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 and savoury when cooked gently.
Flour
Browned in fat and mixed with liquid, it thickens the gravy.
Dripping
Provides fat for frying and adds rich, savoury flavour to the gravy.
Onion
Softens and adds aroma and mild sweetness to the gravy.
Mixed herbs
Adds aroma and savoury flavour to the gravy and liver.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture just below boiling. Gentle heat keeps the liver's proteins tender. A rolling boil toughens them and can make the gravy uneven or lumpy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour, pepper. 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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