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Liver & Bacon with Onion Gravy

A nostalgic thrifty dish that's rich and nutritious - serve the gravy drizzled over fluffy mashed potato

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Why it works: Liver and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,421 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep10 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Fry the bacon rashers in a large frying pan over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until crisp. Move the bacon to a plate and leave the fat in the pan.

  2. Add the olive oil and sliced onion to the pan and cook gently over medium-low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring, until soft and golden.

  3. Pour in the beef stock and ketchup, stir in the sage if using, and simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Keep warm over low heat.

  4. While the gravy simmers, pat the lamb's liver slices dry and toss them in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess.

  5. Heat a second frying pan over medium-high heat. Fry the liver for 1 to 2 minutes per side until browned and cooked through to 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part.

  6. Rest the liver for 3 minutes, then serve with the bacon and spoon the onion gravy over the top.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Liver + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,421 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Lamb + beeftop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sage + livertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  5. Lamb + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the sage

The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, lamb, liver, olive, onion, beef, ketchup):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Celerybetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, lamb, liver, olive, onion, beef, ketchup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).