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Stew of Sheep’s Liver and Pluck , with Wine

A stew of sheep's liver and pluck cooked with butter, onion, herbs, wine, small onions, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Stew of Sheep’s Liver and Pluck , with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the pluck into squares and the liver into slices.

  2. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the onion and herbs.

  3. Season and fry until nicely colored.

Make the stew

  1. Sprinkle with flour and moisten with wine, then let it boil.

  2. Reduce heat and add small onions, frying them with a little salt and sugar until colored.

  3. Drain fat and moisten onions with broth, boiling until reduced.

  4. When the stew is nearly done, season and fry the liver slices, then mix into the stew with the onions.

  5. Let the stew simmer for 10 minutes, then serve, removing the herb bunch.

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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + red winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's liver
Adds rich, meaty flavor and a tender texture when sliced and fried.
Sheep's pluck
Provides the main body of the stew, becoming tender through long moist cooking.
Butter
Fat for frying that carries flavor and helps the onions and meat brown.
Flour (in the method)
Sprinkled over the browned meat to thicken the stew as it cooks with the wine.
White or red wine
Moistens the pan and adds acidity and depth as it boils.
Small onions
Caramelize with salt and sugar, adding sweetness and savory depth to the stew.

The step that matters

Frying the liver slices. Liver overcooks quickly and turns grainy and dry if fried too long. Brief, hot frying keeps it tender before it is mixed into the stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, sugar, red wine):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, sugar, red wine. 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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