Name: Liver of Chicken Saute
Ingredients: 6 chicken livers; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped; 2 tablespoons ham, chopped; 2 slices of bread, toasted

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Liver of Chicken Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Rub the chicken livers with butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

Sauté and serve

Stew the livers in a little butter for 2-3 minutes.
Sprinkle the livers with parsley and ham.
Place each liver on a fried crouton of toast.
Drizzle with a little of the butter used for sautéing.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken livers: Provide the main protein, which turns tender and browns when sautéed briefly.
Butter: Adds fat for sautéing and browning, and carries rich flavour to the livers.
Bread: Toasted and fried bread gives a crisp base that holds the livers.

The step that matters

Stew the livers in a little butter for 2-3 minutes. Livers cook quickly and become grainy and dry if overcooked. A short, hot sauté browns the outside while keeping the inside tender and slightly pink.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, liver, butter, pepper, ham, bread):

Thymefits about as well
Parsleythe original
Marjoramfits about as well
Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, liver, butter, pepper, ham, bread. 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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Liver of Chicken Saute