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Liver and Bacon

Sautéed calf liver and bacon simmered in a sauce of boiling water and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Pour boiling water over the liver slices and let them stand for 5 minutes.

  2. Wipe the liver slices dry.

  3. Coat the liver slices thickly with flour.

Cook the liver and bacon

  1. Cook the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat for 3 minutes.

  2. Add lard if needed.

  3. Add the liver slices to the hot bacon and fry for a few minutes on one side, then turn and fry the other side until browned.

  4. Pour in enough boiling water to half-cover the liver.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Cover tightly and let simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the liver and bacon to a hot dish.

  2. Boil the remaining liquid in the pan, stirring.

  3. Add boiling water if it has reduced too much.

  4. Pour the sauce over the liver and bacon 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

Calf's liver
Provides the meat that is browned on the outside and becomes tender after simmering.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pan for frying and adds savoury, salty flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Coats the liver so it browns during frying and helps thicken the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering covered after browning. Simmering gently in a tightly covered pan with a little liquid keeps the liver tender. Boiling hard or overcooking makes liver tough and dry, so keep the heat low.

“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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