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Stewed Calf's Liver

A stewed calf liver dish with bacon, butter, egg, and seasonings served on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Stewed Calf's Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the calf's liver.

  2. Chop the liver finely.

  3. Add the finely chopped bacon and return to the saucepan.

Cook

  1. Cook until tender, skimming at intervals.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and butter when tender.

  3. Thicken the mixture with the egg.

Serve

  1. Serve on slices of fried bread.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Liver + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,177 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Main protein that gives the dish its body and softens to tenderness as it stews.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury, smoky flavour that carries into the stewing liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.
Egg
Its proteins set when heated, thickening the mixture.

The step that matters

Thickening with the egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so they thicken the sauce, but if the mixture is too hot or boiling, the egg can scramble into lumps. Stir steadily and add it once the liver is tender and the pan is no longer boiling.

“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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