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Baked Liver

A baked calf liver seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley, and larded with pork or bacon, optionally braised with vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Liver

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Season the calf's liver with pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped parsley.

  3. Lard the liver with strips of pork or bacon.

Bake

  1. For added flavor, braise with small vegetables and meat trimmings underneath the liver.

  2. Bake for two hours.

  3. Baste the liver frequently while baking.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Liver + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Is the main meat, cooked gently so it stays moist and tender.
Pork or bacon strips
Fat laced through the liver melts during baking, adding moisture and savory flavor.
Small vegetables
Braised underneath the liver, they add aroma and flavor to the pan juices.

The step that matters

Baste the liver frequently while baking. Liver is lean and dries out easily over a long bake. Spooning the pan juices over the surface keeps it moist and helps it stay tender instead of firm and grainy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, pork, meat):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, pork, meat. 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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