Why it works: Liver and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,420 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Liver and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bacon
Slice the bacon into thin pieces.
Remove the rind from the bacon.
Fry the bacon in a frying pan for about 10 minutes, adding a small piece of dripping if the bacon is not very fatty.
Turn the bacon when one side is fried.
Keep the bacon warm on a dish.
Fry the liver
Slice the sheep's liver into pieces.
Coat the liver pieces in flour on both sides.
Fry the liver in the same pan, a few pieces at a time, for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally.
If desired, fry sliced onion with the liver for added flavor.
Check the liver for doneness; it should be brown inside.
Serve the cooked liver on the dish with the bacon.
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.
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Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,420 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Sheep's liver
- Forms the main body of the dish; cooking it through turns it firm and brown.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and salty, savory flavor that the fat carries into the liver.
- Flour
- Coats the liver so it browns in the pan and keeps a light crust.
The step that matters
Check the liver for doneness. Liver turns tough and dry when overcooked, yet undercooked liver is unsafe to eat. Frying in small batches and turning it helps it cook evenly, and checking that the inside is brown confirms it is done.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour. 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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