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Calf’s Liver and Bacon

A dish of sliced calf liver fried with bacon and topped with Fine Herbs Sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and ham work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 298 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Calf’s Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the bacon until crispy.

  2. Add the calf's liver to the pan and fry until light brown, being careful not to overcook.

  3. Arrange the liver and bacon neatly on a dish.

  4. Pour the Fine Herbs Sauce over the top 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. Liver + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Liver + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together499 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the dish; frying briefly gives it a browned surface with a tender interior.
Bacon
Adds salty, savoury fat that crisps in the pan and flavours the liver.
Fine herbs sauce
Adds moisture and herb flavour over the liver and bacon just before serving.

The step that matters

Frying the calf's liver. Liver is lean and overcooks quickly, becoming dry and grainy. Frying just until light brown keeps it tender and moist inside.

“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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