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Fried Calves' Liver

A fried liver dish with a gravy of bacon fat, flour, water or stock, mushroom ketchup, and gherkins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fried Calves' Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Cut the calves' liver into slices ¼ inch thick.

  2. Dip each slice in a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper.

Fry the liver and bacon

  1. Heat drippings in a frying pan until very hot.

  2. Add the liver to the pan.

  3. Cook the liver for 5 minutes.

  4. Turn the liver and cook until done.

  5. In another pan, crisp and brown the bacon cut into thin slices.

  6. Pour most fat from both pans.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add a little bacon fat to the liver pan.

  2. Stir in flour.

  3. Dilute with water or stock until smooth.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and mushroom ketchup.

  5. Stir in minced gherkins.

  6. Place the liver on a hot platter.

  7. Pour gravy around it.

  8. Garnish with bacon.

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 + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  2. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Liver + mushroomtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together572 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 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

Calves' liver
Is the main protein, cooked quickly in hot fat so the outside browns while the inside stays tender.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown in the pan, and later thickens the gravy.
Bacon
Adds savoury, salty fat and crisp browned pieces that garnish the finished dish.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury flavour to the gravy.
Minced gherkins
Adds a sharp, acidic bite that cuts the richness of the liver and gravy.

The step that matters

Turn the liver and cook until done. Liver is thin and cooks fast; overcooking makes it dry and grainy as its proteins tighten, so it should be removed while still slightly pink inside.

“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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