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Calf's Liver with Italian Sauce

Sliced calf liver fried and served with Italian sauce and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,404 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Calf's Liver with Italian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the liver into slices 1 inch thick and in the shape of a fan.

  2. Dredge the slices with flour.

Cook

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the liver slices.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cook over medium heat.

  3. Check doneness by cutting into a slice.

Serve

  1. Arrange the cooked liver on a plate and drizzle with Italian sauce mixed with lemon juice 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 + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Liver + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together499 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Liver + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together768 recipes

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

  5. 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 main protein, cooked quickly so it stays tender inside.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that promotes browning and helps the surface crisp in the hot oil.
Italian sauce
Adds moisture and a rich, savoury finish to the cooked liver.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the liver and sauce.

The step that matters

Check doneness by cutting into a slice. Liver overcooks quickly and turns dry and grainy. Cutting a slice to check the centre lets the cook stop cooking while it is still tender and slightly pink inside.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, flour, sauce):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour, sauce. 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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